Overview
- Labour Minister Bärbel Bas is preparing to present a legislative draft in June that would remove the statutory eight‑hour daily limit and set a weekly maximum instead.
- Employer groups back aligning German law with the EU’s 48‑hour weekly framework to allow more flexible, project‑based scheduling and a wider spread of hours across the week.
- Trade unions and labour researchers warn the change could permit much longer single workdays, worsen work–life balance, and increase risks of stress, burnout and cardiovascular illness.
- Legal analysts cited calculations that under some interpretations a weekly‑cap model could allow extreme workweeks — critics point to a Hans‑Böckler‑affiliated estimate of up to 73.5 hours as an example of that risk.
- Proposed safeguards such as electronic time recording are contested because unions say they may not stop employers from deciding when shifts end, and the issue has become a fault line in the governing coalition that will require negotiated compromise.