With the Green Paper "Working 4.0 - Rethinking Work", the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) has provided impetus for a discussion process on the future organisation of work. Against the backdrop of technological innovations as well as demographic and cultural changes, which are accompanied by new demands on the organisation of work, the aim is to discuss ways of shaping an innovative working time policy.
To mark this occasion, the BMAS commissioned the Berlin Governance Platform to hold two trialogue events to which social partners, representatives of civil society and academia were invited. The results of the two trialogue events were included in the White Paper Working 4.0 were incorporated.
The following widely supported findings and proposals are among the results of the working time dialogue that have found their way into the White Paper on Work 4.0:
1. a change in corporate and management culture is necessary for an innovative organisation of working time.
2. there is a need for research into the health burdens of knowledge work and the multiple burdens of work and family.
3. there needs to be a social dialogue on and promotion of models for individual working time over the life course, for example in the form of a long-term employment account that takes better account of time requirements over the course of life.
4. the return from part-time to full-time work should be legally secured.
5. there is great potential in the establishment of experimental spaces for rest periods and maximum daily working hours, flanked as far as possible by existing tripartite platforms in their implementation.
2016
Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS)
Prof. Dr. Gesine Schwan
