"With a four-day week and an exaggerated work-life balance, prosperity cannot be maintained," Chancellor Friedrich Merz said early this month, despite OECD data that shows Germans work even more than they did in previous years. He also complained that Germans call in sick for work too often, and in general, suffer from a lack of work ethic.
The economic wing of his party, the Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsunion (MIT), the representation of the interests of entrepreneurs in the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has made the headlines by criticizing what it called "lifestyle part-time." This was in reference to "not people who need to reduce their hours to take care of children, or sick relatives, or pursue education. It's about people who just want more free time," MIT spokeswoman Juliane Berndt told DW.
The MIT is calling for reforms to Germany's labor laws to address this perceived issue.
"Taxpayers should not be financing the work-life balance of people receiving social benefits," according to Berndt.
Germany's part-time workforce has indeed increased significantly over the decades, but that is due in large part to families no longer being able to survive on a single income, as well as technological changes that have left many people chosing part time work over no work at all.
Citing data from Germany's federal statistics agency, DeStatis, MIT has pointed out that in 2022, 27% of part-time workers in Germany reported their reasons for not working full-time as simply "a desire to work part-time."
However, according to Dr. Claudia Hahn, a lawyer and one of Germany's preeminent lecturers on part-time labor laws, many people simply don't tell their employer why they've requested to work part-time.
"I have been practicing labor law for 24 years," Hahn told DW. "Regarding part-time work law mostly on behalf of employees, but some employers as well. I have never had a case involving someone who simply wanted more free time."
"My experience is that almost all part-time contracts are the result of a consensus between the employer and employee,” she said. Hahn also took issue with MIT's assertion that employers have no legal recourse to refuse an employee who requests part-time work, a key factor in why they believe the law should be amended.
Hahn explained that "a request for reduced working hours is not automatic," and can be refused on a number of grounds. Moreover, the reasons an employee makes the request rarely come into play legally. "The employee does have the right to then sue their employer," to continue the petition, but few are willing to risk suing the company that signs their checks.
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What are Germany's part-time labor laws?
TL;DR: Any employee of a company that has 15 or more staffers is allowed to request a part-time contract, but it must be done at least three months in advance.
Any employee of a company that has 15 or more staffers is allowed to request a part-time contract, but it must be done at least three months in advance. Their employer is allowed to reject the request if, for example, it would incur the company undue costs or it would impede the company's ability to operate at a normal output.
If an employee wants to switch back to a full-time contract, the ultimate decision-making authority lies with the employer. Under both German and EU law, discriminating against part-time workers on the basis that they are unequal to full-time employees is forbidden, and they are entitled to a commensurate amount of pay, sick leave, training opportunities, and vacation days.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Chancellor Merz appeared to once again blame the country's economic woes on the laziness of the German people, claiming "the Germans are used to working 200 hours fewer [a year] than their Swiss colleagues." However, data shows that there are in fact more part-time workers in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Austria than there are in Germany.
'No one wants to work anymore'
TL;DR: Although this sentiment, and others like it, have become routine in English media coverage of the post-COVID-19-pandemic economy, it has a tradition going back as far as ancient Greece.
Although this sentiment, and others like it, have become routine in English media coverage of the post-COVID-19-pandemic economy, it has a tradition going back as far as ancient Greece. Poet and farmer Hesiod bemoaned his neighbor's favoring idleness over what he saw as worthwhile work. In Germany, examples go back to at least the Weimar Republic. At the time, conservative politicians bemoaned what they claimed was widespread public laziness, despite an economic crisis that created mass unemployment.
MIT's phrase "lifestyle part-time" has been seen by many as just the latest iteration of "no one wants to work anymore." The National Council of German Women's Organizations (DF) called this an "affront" to working mothers, who make up a disproportionate amount of Germany's part-time workers. "The shortage of skilled workers cannot be addressed by forcing people to work longer hours," but by creating better working conditions, such as increased childcare options, and more flexible hours for working families.
Katharina Dröge, the parliamentary co-leader of the opposition Green Party, called the phrase "degrading" and an attempt to "take away one hard-won right after another."
The center-left Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners to the CDU bloc in Germany's governing coalition, have also hit out against the suggestion that Germans work part-time in order to enjoy leisure time. The party has been at pains in recent months to reconnect with its working-class roots, with several state elections looming this year.
Alexander Schweitzer, state premier of Rhineland-Palatinate and hoping to be reelected in March, told Deutschlandfunk radio that he "knows no one who is working less in order to spend more time on the golf course." His fellow Social Democrat and state premier of the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Manuela Schwesig, warned that the proposal put forward by MIT would set a dangerous precedent whereby the government is deciding between what are good and bad reasons to work part-time.
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Tax reform versus labor law reform
TL;DR: Some German economists have pointed out that changing tax laws, rather than changing labor regulations, might encourage more people to work full-time.
Some German economists have pointed out that changing tax laws, rather than changing labor regulations, might encourage more people to work full-time. Mass circulation newspaper Bild published a report recently citing OECD research that Germany's tax laws do not provide an incentive to work 40 hours a week.
A representative from the German taxpayer union told the paper that someone bringing home 2000 euros ($2,400) a month pay 4.4 cents tax on the euro. For someone bringing home 4000 ($4,745), that jumps to 13.1 cents.
Both Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, of the CDU's Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the SPD have also suggested rethinking the eight-hour workday, making schedules more flexible, instead of demonizing part time work.
SPD Labor Minister Bärbel Bas has reportedly followed through on a provision in the government's coalition treaty last year, and finished a proposed reform of the Working Hours Act . It would see hours required for a full-time job spread out over weeks and months, not days, to better reflect the needs of seasonal and project-based work.
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Curated by Fatima Al-Hassan
