How To Make Employers Unhappy

New legislation ahead? Employees' right for a reduction in working time.

Subject to certain conditions, German employment law entitles employees to unilaterally demand a reduction in working time from their employers. Conversely, employees are entitled to extend their individual working time only in exceptional cases. As a result, employees demanding a reduction in working time often find themselves on a one-way street into a part-time working relationship.

At the beginning of 2017 it became public that this situation might soon change. A draft bill issued by the German Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, BMAS) now proposes to implement a general employees' right to demand parttime work on a temporary basis. These developments provide employers with good reason to acquaint themselves with the current law on employee demands for reductions in working time.