MUNICH/AUGSBURG (dpa-AFX) – The Bavarian Business Association proposes forgoing vacation to stimulate the economy. After their demand to cancel a public holiday was unsuccessful last year, managing director Bertram Brossardt is now naming alternatives in the “Augsburger Allgemeine”.
“You can cancel a day of vacation or increase daily and weekly working hours, as the Prime Minister rightly suggested with his proposal for an hour of extra work per week,” he emphasized. Markus Söder (CSU) said a few days ago: “An hour of extra work a week would bring us an enormous amount of economic growth and is really not too much to ask.”
Brossardt also gives an impression of how high the potential is: In the current year, 0.2 percent additional growth is expected due to the effect of three public holidays falling on a weekend alone, he told the newspaper.
Interference with collective agreements
In contrast to the cancellation of a public holiday, things such as one less day of vacation or one more hour per week are much more complicated to regulate. As a rule, these values are determined by collective agreements. Brossardt also said this in the interview. Such a rule would therefore have to be negotiated.
However, it is very unlikely that the unions, as negotiating partners, will simply accept such a change in the collective agreements. The German Federation of Trade Unions in Bavaria only called for public holidays that fall on the weekend to be made up in the fall – which would go in the opposite direction.
In the interview, Brossardt gave a nuanced view of the current part-time debate: “Anyone who raises children or cares for relatives has a good reason to go part-time. That’s the way it should be and it’s not even up for debate,” he emphasized. “However, I believe that entitlement to part-time work is wrong. It must be left to the companies and their employees to make arrangements.”/ruc/DP/jha
