Coalition's Push for Weekly Work-Hour Limit Sparks Union Fury Over 13-Hour Shifts

Germany's biggest trade union body is accusing the government of trying to legalise illegal overtime, after the coalition signalled it would replace the daily cap on hours with a weekly limit. Yasmin Fahimi, chair of the German Trade Union Federation (DGB), warned that the change would permit shifts as long as 13 hours – a level she described as purely ideological and economically reckless.

The clash over working time is only one front in a wider confrontation. Fahimi also took aim at the coalition's overall reform agenda, due to be finalised before the summer break. She called the government's austerity course a threat to the country's fragile recovery, arguing that across-the-board subsidy cuts would choke domestic demand rather than stimulate it.

The planned tax reform, she said, should be financed not by blanket cuts but by targeted relief for companies willing to invest, paired with heavy spending on energy infrastructure. The DGB intends to present its own counter?proposals at Wednesday's coalition committee meeting, pressing for investment incentives that preserve social security and workers' purchasing power.

Under current law, the daily maximum is eight hours, extendable to ten under certain conditions. The government wants to scrap that daily ceiling in favour of a weekly limit, a move the DGB argues would make 13?hour shifts a legal possibility. Fahimi accused employers of seeking to normalise what are now illegal overtime arrangements. Flexible scheduling, she insisted, should be negotiated through collective agreements and works councils, not by changing the law.

Despite the outcry, Chancellor Friedrich Merz defended the reform drive at a CDU state party conference on Sunday. The coalition – made up of the Union and the SPD – aims to set key policy pillars by late June or early July. Bundesratspräsident Andreas Bovenschulte suggested focusing first on the tax overhaul, noting that pension reform could follow in the second half of the year. Wednesday's meeting between the government and social partners is seen as a critical juncture.

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