Regional government employees in Baden-Württemberg took strike action on 5 December in defence of the 38.5 hour week. The region has been getting new starters - employees taken on since 2004 - to work 41 hours a week. Their holiday pay has also been cut and Christmas bonus reduced. An estimated 20,000 workers took part in the action.
Read more at > SWR
Meanwhile workers at hospitals and university clinics in Hamburg and the North-Rhine Wesfalia region are gearing up for protests and possible strikes over their employers' failure to endorse the new public sector agreement. Employers in Hamburg want a 42-hour week, again with cuts to holiday and Christmas bonuses.
Read more at > ver.di NRW
And at > ver.di Hamburg
Anger builds up over longer working hours
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Campaign builds against longer working hours
Services union ver.di is warning local authority employers that they will face strike action if they push ahead with plans to increase the working week. The union says it will defend jobs and working time in local authorities and maintain pressure on the regional government employers to sign up to the deal agreed with federal and local government at the beginning of last year. Local authorities in Baden-Württemburg, Lower Saxony and Hamburg have all announced their intention of increasing hours. The union's response is that strike action will begin in Baden-Württemburg from 6th February. s
Strike action over longer hours continues
Public sector workers are continuing their strike action against attempts by local and regional employers to impose longer working hours. Around 3,000 university clinic employees are on strike around the North-Rhine Westfalia region, including in Cologne, Münster, Essen and Düsseldorf. [Read more at > ver.di->http://gesundheit-soziales.nrw.verdi.de/uni-kliniken_im_streik] In the Lower Saxony region an estimated 4,000 workers have joined the strike. [Read more at > ver.di->http://nds-bremen.verdi.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/showNews?id=4cd136aa-9c9e-11da-6295-000e0c66dc60] In Baden-Württemburg
Employees work longer and more atypical hours
A new report from the trade union-linked Hans Böcker Foundation shows how working time has changed in Germany in recent years and older workers tend to be more affected. Overall German workers now work on average 40.3 hours a week, 40 minutes longer than they did five years ago, with a third working at least 42 hours a week. The report also highlights the fact that the growth in shift, evening and weekend working has been mainly among older workers with the 40+ age categories seeing increases in such unsocial working time. [Read more at > Hans Böckler (DE)->http://www.boeckler.de/32014_91489