A reduction in working hours can make sense for various reasons: improvement of work-life balance, care work, care for family members or for personal health reasons.
Legal basis
In Germany, the reduction in working hours on the part-time and the Festival Act (TzBfG) is regulated by law. Paragraph 8 TzBfG particularly plays a relevant role here, because he says the following: “An employee whose employment relationship has passed longer than six months can request that his contractually agreed working time will be reduced”.
However, the prerequisite for this is that the employer “usually employs more than 15 employees”, with trainees including. Furthermore, a written application must be made three months in advance, according to § 8 TzBfG. The employer is obliged to negotiate with the employee in order to find a common solution. A rejection of the application is only possible on the basis of serious operational interests.
Advantages and disadvantages
A reduction in working hours goes hand in hand with some advantages and disadvantages, both on the part of the employee and on the part of the employer. The employee benefits from a better work-life balance, more time for themselves and the family or other personal interests. On the contrary, the employee must expect a less wage or pension claims or possible career losses.
For the employer, bottlenecks in personnel planning can arise, which is why higher organizational effort could be necessary. However, he benefits from the higher satisfaction and productivity of his employees and may better adapt to economic fluctuations.
Special cases
In certain special cases, workers receive a easier promise regarding the reduction in working hours. This applies, for example, to employees who are on parental leave. The employer must produce considerable reasons for a rejection. If the application is made based on the maintenance of a relative, the employee is given the opportunity to reduce or suspend working hours for up to six months due to the nursing time law. Employees with a severe disability also have the right to an individually adapted working time in accordance with paragraph 164 (5) SGB IX if this is necessary to maintain work ability.
Editor finance.net