AlainLocke
Banned
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German workers won a key victory in their fight for a better work-life balance when a big employers’ group agreed to demands from the country’s largest trade union for the introduction of a 28-hour working week. The agreement between IG Metall, which represents a wide swath of industrial workers, and the Südwestmetall employers’ federation, shows how unions in Germany, that for years have been a model of wage restraint, are flexing their muscles in ways more typical of organised labour in France, home of the 35-hour working week.
It also comes with Germany in the midst of its longest postwar stretch without a government and Angela Merkel struggling through her fifth month of coalition negotiations, raising questions about whether a country that once lectured Europe on economic and political stability is suddenly losing its way. The labour agreement is a product of Germany’s economic boom, which has given unions an unusually strong hand in collective bargaining talks this year. Last year, the economy grew at its fastest rate since 2011 and unemployment is at its lowest since reunification in 1990.
The parties agreed on a 4.3 per cent wage raise from April, and other payments spread over 27 months. Workers will be allowed to reduce their working week from the standard 35 hours to 28, while preserving the right to return to full-time work.
USA ranks 5th in productivity but works the most hours in the top 10. On average we work at least 3 hours more. 3 more hours, with shyttier benefits and get less shyt done than countries that work 26 to 28 hours a week on average. Granted we got a larger working population but still...we can do better.
Only country in the top 10 the works the same amount of hours is Ireland.
These Are the Most Productive Countries in the World
German workers won a key victory in their fight for a better work-life balance when a big employers’ group agreed to demands from the country’s largest trade union for the introduction of a 28-hour working week. The agreement between IG Metall, which represents a wide swath of industrial workers, and the Südwestmetall employers’ federation, shows how unions in Germany, that for years have been a model of wage restraint, are flexing their muscles in ways more typical of organised labour in France, home of the 35-hour working week.
It also comes with Germany in the midst of its longest postwar stretch without a government and Angela Merkel struggling through her fifth month of coalition negotiations, raising questions about whether a country that once lectured Europe on economic and political stability is suddenly losing its way. The labour agreement is a product of Germany’s economic boom, which has given unions an unusually strong hand in collective bargaining talks this year. Last year, the economy grew at its fastest rate since 2011 and unemployment is at its lowest since reunification in 1990.
The parties agreed on a 4.3 per cent wage raise from April, and other payments spread over 27 months. Workers will be allowed to reduce their working week from the standard 35 hours to 28, while preserving the right to return to full-time work.
USA ranks 5th in productivity but works the most hours in the top 10. On average we work at least 3 hours more. 3 more hours, with shyttier benefits and get less shyt done than countries that work 26 to 28 hours a week on average. Granted we got a larger working population but still...we can do better.
Only country in the top 10 the works the same amount of hours is Ireland.
These Are the Most Productive Countries in the World
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4 hours a day? or 5.6 hours per weekday? either seems nice.
