Overview

• Berlin workers logged about 54.4 million overtime hours last year, including roughly 30.2 million that were unpaid, according to the Pestel-Institut’s Arbeitszeit-Monitor for NGG.
• The study estimates around 1.4 million overtime hours in the city’s hospitality sector, with more than half unpaid, using nationwide gastronomy averages to derive the Berlin figure.
• NGG warns that proposed legal changes could let employers schedule 10 to 12 hour days, with up to 73.5 working hours per week under EU rules, and urges lawmakers to block the overhaul.
• The union argues longer shifts would fuel exhaustion, accidents and illness and harm family life, advocating better conditions, training and family-friendly staffing instead of looser limits.
• A May analysis from the Hugo Sinzheimer Institut cautioned that extending daily maximums beyond twelve hours could be economically counterproductive and threaten workers’ health and safety, while the ruling coalition pursues longer working times and Economic Minister Katherina Reiche calls for Germans to work more.