The End of the 8-Hour Workday

Already discussed on many occasions, never implemented and now back in the starting blocks: the abolition of the 8-hour day. In future, the government would like to limit not the daily but the weekly working time to 40 hours. This is intended to allow employees to organise their working hours more flexibly in future. The idea has already been proposed in the past and is now coming forward again from the CDU.

Whether the proposal will be implemented remains to be seen. The Ministry of Labour is letting it be known that the idea did not originate from them. Currently, trade unions are also against the abolition of the 8-hour working day. The law exists for the protection of health and to prevent employees from being overloaded. Currently, up to 10 hours a day can already be worked with exceptions. With the abolition of the 8-hour working day, employees could work up to 12 hours a day in future. Whether the draft law will be implemented is something we cannot predict, but there are already many arguments for and against the regulation:

Advantages

The abolition of the daily working time limit can create the following advantages for employees and employers:

• Potential improvement in work-life balance through flexible work scheduling.
• On days with reduced working hours, productivity increases.
• Reduction in employee absences through greater flexibility in planning private appointments.

Disadvantages

On the other hand, the following disadvantages should be considered if the proposal goes through:

• Possible increase in workload through 10 or 12-hour working days.
• Can have a direct impact on the mental and physical health of employees and increase the risk of burnout.
• Problems reconciling family and work.
• Hindrance to teamwork when employees work at different times.

Conclusion

The abolition of the 8-hour working day is being critically observed by many people and has not yet been finally decided. Whether the flexible 40-hour week would have a positive or negative effect for you depends greatly on your company. Are you an employee who already works flexitime and can already organise your working day flexibly? Or do you perhaps work in shift work and is overtime already part of the job? Are you running your company and would like more flexibility in organising your workforce?

Regardless of whether the law is introduced and how you would like to handle it in your company, digital time recording always makes sense. Especially if your employees are already working flexitime or you would like to offer your employees more flexibility in future. A digital, flexible time recording solution like projectfacts is becoming increasingly relevant in the ever-changing world of work. If you would like to find out more, please feel free to contact our consulting team!