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| Europe |
| Germans may pay for tea breaks |
| 2004-11-15 |
| In increasingly desperate moves to reduce labour costs, German economists are considering how employers can avoid paying workers in cigarette and tea breaks. Employees could be forced to carry time cards and stamp themselves in and out when they leave their workplace for a smoke or drink so that, at the end of the month, the time they spent away from work could be totted up. Under the proposal, the wages for that time would then be withheld. Norbert Walter, head economist at Deutsche Bank, said that restricting pay to time actually worked would reduce labour costs dramatically. "Those who want to smoke and drink tea should be able to continue doing so. But no one should expect that the employer should pay for their breaks," he said. Some estimates say that some employees would stand to lose up to a month's wages each year. |
| Posted by:Bulldog |
| #8 Less money for more leisure time, reminds me of the old Kellog Company. During the 30s, in order to keeep everybody working, they cut back to a six hour work day. Still got all the work done, but now people had time to do "other stuff" (Family, shopping, hobbies, loafing) as well as the energy to do so. As I figured out once while trying to go to work and school at the same time, Six hours of school and eight hours of work addred up to 18 hours from the time I got up till I got to bed, before any overtime. I couldn't keep it going. |
| Posted by: pyotr576 2004-11-15 8:05:25 PM |
| #7 A pony? What? I want a fine Saddle Bred. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-11-15 4:41:25 PM |
| #6 And a pony, Ship. Gotta get the pony. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2004-11-15 4:35:37 PM |
| #5 less money for more leisure time What? I want more money and more lesisure time and subsidized insurance for my canoe. And cheaper HD TV... like REX cheap. Cable under 20 dollars or optionally they pay me. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-11-15 4:32:43 PM |
| #4 Of course, no one has thought of trimming marginal income/payroll tax rates. You can chart the drop in work hours from the Economic Miracle days to the current malaise alongside a hike in marginal tax rates. My company allows what lex has suggested; you can select how many hours you work (not week-to-week; you sign a contract). I know a few who do it, but most people want the extra money. Still, the option is there, and it's reassuring that it is. But of course, My marginal rate is under 40% (fed + state + medicare part of SS). If it were 65%, well, I'd like some more time off, too. |
| Posted by: jackal 2004-11-15 2:50:35 PM |
| #3 Actually, here's a contrarian observation in defense of one aspect of Euro-slackery. When you restrict the work week hours, preferably by social custom and boss pressure, you find that a lot of inessential bullshit falls by the wayside and your people become far mroe productive. I work for a French company, and our counterparts in France (for the most part) work fewer hours and accomplish as much as we do because they simply don't do a lot of the political BS stuff that wastes so many of our hours. They get the hell out of the office at 6 in order to be with their families, and their work doesn't suffer at all. I for one would like to see our society adopt the Dutch-French approach of giving employees the option of less money for more leisure time. Absolutely crucial for anyone trying to raise a family with small children, and I guarantee it won't hit our productivity. Probably increase it, actually. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-11-15 1:29:39 PM |
| #2 The word they are looking for here is "productivity"--a magical phrase that US economists have long praised the US with in glowing terms of increase--but never the EU. The Europeans seem to think that a "work ethic" can be created by bureaucratic dictate, much like a 'Dilbert'-style pointy-haired boss; and yet they don't know how to properly motivate, either with inducement or coercion. Their priorities are screwed up: nobody can make employees work who don't want to work. A manager has to work 10 hours to insure that an employee works for 4 without slacking off--it's too much bother, and most of what is produced is worthless. Almost all work done in a day is done in a single hour, the rest of the work day being wasted. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2004-11-15 1:07:53 PM |
| #1 "that restricting pay to time actually worked would reduce labour costs dramatically" Good luck. In my old country, there was a saying: "We pretend that we are working and government pretends that it is paying us". Not saying it's the same, but close. The cigar may come later when the flag of socialistic progress signposts the workers' paradise taken away from greedy fat capitalists ... Yes, it would be a Cuban one, naturally. |
| Posted by: Cornîliës 2004-11-15 11:26:41 AM |