AUB e. V. Calls for Weekly Working Hours Model in Germany

The independent employee representation AUB e. V. has released a thesis paper titled “Hamburger Thesen und Forderungen zur Flexibilisierung der Arbeitszeit,” outlining ten proposals for modernising German work‑time regulation. The core demand is to replace the current daily maximum with a weekly cap, while preserving the EU‑mandated 48‑hour weekly limit. The paper argues that cross‑time‑zone collaboration, home‑office and mobile work no longer fit a system designed in the 1990s.

AUB chairman Rainer Knoob stresses that “whoever talks to colleagues in Singapore in the evening is not working longer, but differently,” and calls for the weekly limit to be applied uniformly to all companies to avoid hidden tariff pressure. The organisation urges that the concrete design of weekly hours be decided at the company level, reflecting the varied needs of different sectors and functions.