Working time – alongside digitalization, which is also driving debates on working time reforms – is the defining topic of labour policy in recent and coming years. The coronavirus pandemic and the “Mobile Work Act” presented in fall 2020 have further intensified this trend. The desire for time sovereignty, i.e. self-determination over the structure of working hours, is generally aimed at greater flexibility. The desire for rigid structures – the entire working life Monday to Friday from “nine to five” – is slowly dying out. In the meantime, many works councils are initiating new regulations on the organization of working hours in their respective companies and departments.
Working time refers to the time that someone sells to an employer in return for a corresponding pay claim. When in life and for how long the workforce is used by the employer and is subject to the employer’s instructions also influences private life. In this respect, the issue of time sovereignty also includes the desire to reconcile family or care responsibilities with working life. In addition, well-designed working hours are also essential for physical and mental health. We therefore use our expertise and many years of experience to train and advise committees in all these areas.
Our Topics
Our expertise in the area of working time:
- Shift planning
- Working time accounts and flexibilization/remote work
- Partial retirement
- Short-time work
- Possibilities of operational working time controlling and work capacity planning
- Individual and collective management options
- Compatibility regulations for family, care and work
Our Services
The Works Constitution Act and Staff Representation Act give works councils and staff councils the right of initiative on many issues relating to the organization of working time. We support the employee representatives in analyzing the current situation, working out the objectives with the committee and making suitable regulatory proposals. Based on the analysis of the current situation, it is necessary to develop criteria and benchmarks for the target situation and the means of achieving it. However, the first step in all company planning for working time is to ask what our guiding principles for working time organization are and what the relevant value orientations are. What is disturbing about the current situation, where does the existing time corset put pressure?
Our services:
- Analysis of the requirements for operational objectives, work organization, motivation and working time design
- Development of interests and objectives for the organization of working time
- Regulations remote and mobile working
- Regulations on new working time systems and working time accounts
- Problems of capacity utilization and planning
- Development of compensation instruments for phases of overload / underload
- Compatibility regulations
Further information
Working time accounts
The adaptation of working time to life phases is intended to enable a better balance between gainful employment and personal life phases and needs. One person wants to retire earlier, another wants to do a doctorate, a third wants to travel the world and a fourth wants to build a house. What role can reduced weekly working hours in phases – months or years – play, what role can partial retirement or sabbaticals play, and how should they be structured? Legally, the door is open for age- and age-appropriate company time regulations. § Section 107b-f SGB IV regulates the conditions of use for long-term accounts/value accounts. A company initiative could be worthwhile. Collective agreements on reduced full-time work with the right to return to normal full-time work open up additional scope for individual arrangements.
It’s about who decides how their own working hours are organized. The supposedly old working time issues are not a thing of the past; they are resurfacing in new contexts. Existing regulations must be reviewed in the light of recent developments to ensure that they are up to date and applicable.
Remote and mobile working
The regulations on remote and mobile working go far beyond working time issues. They concern questions of company work organization, digital communication and also control. Even if the advantages such as less traffic, time savings or self-organization cannot be denied, regulations on risk assessment, data protection, liability, costs and accidents at work should be drawn up. But the changed form of service provision also raises questions: What does performance, performance limitation and performance assessment mean when working from home? Are there shifts in remuneration methods as a result? The conditions for works meetings and company actions are also changing. Regardless of how one assesses this in detail, the consequences that the permanent or future higher proportion of home office, the division of workplaces into a company and a home part, will have for the previously integral workplace and the social context in the company, make regulations necessary.
Short-time work
The requirements for applying for short-time work are regulated by SGB III. The questions regarding the group of persons, the proportion of short-time work, its duration, additional payments and exceptions must be regulated.
In principle, companies can also consider flexitime to avoid short-time working. It is an instrument for structuring annual working hours and therefore requires stable long-term experience with regard to capacity utilization and a correspondingly long lead time in its application. Its functional principle is based on the fact that when the order situation is high or seasonal, the IrwAz is exceeded; in return, the IrwAz is proportionally undercut later or when the order situation is weak. On average over 12 months, the collectively agreed or individual contractual IrwAz is thus achieved. The monthly payment does not reflect this flexibility, and short-time working phases and thus loss of income or fluctuations in employment can be avoided.