From 38 to 35 reduces the automotive industry BMW on working hours at its plant in East Germany in order to be equal to those at its plants in West Germany. It is a move welcomed by the workers’ council as the achievement of the long-awaited equality 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Wages and working hours are still unequal between East and West Germany, with government figures showing that workers in East Germany still work a few more hours for less money than their counterparts in West Germany.
THE BMW pledged today to reduce the weekly working hours at its plant in Leipzig, part of the former communist East Germany, to three stages, to 35 hours by 2026, and to bring in an additional 300 workers to make up for the shortfall.
“More than 30 years after the fall of the Wall, our employees at the BMW Group do not finally need to work three hours more than their Western counterparts,” said Manfred Skock, head of the workers’ council.
Competitor Volkswagen did something similar in May, applying 35 hours of weekly work to its factories in eastern Germany to have the same working hours as West Germany, according to Reuters and the Athens News Agency.
However, it did not hire additional workers, expecting instead that the productivity of its factories in East Germany would increase.
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