> > A 30-Hour Working Week: Could It Happen in Germany? >
> Published: Monday, 11 Feb 2013 | 7:15 AM ET > > http://www.cnbc.com/id/100449528 > > <http://www.cnbc.com/id/100449528>A group of 100 German academics, trade > unionists and politicians is calling for a 30-hour working week with full > pay, German daily Tageszeitung reported on Monday, with the petitioners > arguing that a shorter working week is the best way to address rising > unemployment. > Germany's unemployment rate, which increased to 7.4 percent in January, > remains well below the 26 percent reached in Spain. But in an open letter > published on Monday and cited by the newspaper, the group said a reduction > in working hours could help German workers. > Under the plan, devised by politicians from left wing parties, > philosophers and academics, a 30-hour working week would be introduced > gradually over the course of several years. It would markedly improve > productivity, the group argued, which in turn would help employers pay out > full wages. > "We need a project by society as a whole to reduce working hours. This can > no longer simply be a collective bargaining policy matter," the paper cited > Hein-Josef Bontrup, professor of commercial law at the Westfalische > Hochschule University and one of the driving forces behind the letter > assaying. > Bontrup said trade union leaders argued that workers did not want a > shorter working week because they feared it would lead to lower wages and a > higher workload. But he said that view was the result of a lack of > fundamental understanding."Even some trade union leaders do not understand > things taught in the first semester of an economics degree," the paper > cited him as saying. ________________ The open letter (in German) can be downloaded from Professor Bontrup's page: http://wirtschaftsrecht.w-hs.de/fileadmin/fb10/autouser/Bontrup/Offener_Brief_Stand_2013_02_13.pdf -- Cheers, Tom Walker (Sandwichman)
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