German Manufacturers Push for Return of 40-Hour Week

Germany's industrial giants want more hours out of workers—without more money going out the door. With manufacturing in a prolonged slump and labor costs among the priciest in Europe, executives at giants like Mercedes-Benz and toolmaker Stihl are urging a shift from the hard-won 35-hour standard to 40 hours at existing pay, reports the Financial Times. "We should seriously consider a return to the 40-hour week," Martin Brudermueller of Mercedes-Benz Group AG's supervisory board told a German newspaper.

The 35-hour week emerged out of metalworker strikes in the 1980s and 1990s, and it's one reason the nation's overall average workweek is 37.8 hours, among the lowest of developed nations. Manufacturers argue that Germany has lost a key productivity edge and risks sending more production, and jobs, abroad. Unions counter that the supposedly "rigid" 35-hour week is already flexible in practice and warn that longer hours for the same pay would shrink head count, not save it. Economists, meanwhile, are skeptical that a longer week will solve more structural problems—including weakening demand—for companies such as Volkswagen, reports the Economic Times.