Abstract
Germany has an extensive array of rules and norms that regulate employee working hours and business operating times, including when during the week and weekends that manufacturers are permitted to operate. These limitations on working times are often highlighted in discussions about the barriers that constrain German industrial competitiveness. Indeed, the organization of working hours in industry can be viewed as a major indicator of rigidity or flexibility in the German manufacturing system and of the adaptation by German enterprises and workers to broader economic and societal changes. Fundamental changes in working hours in Germany involve negotiation processes on at least four levels: legal regulations, industrywide collective bargaining agreements between trade unions and employers’ associations, plant agreements and individual job contracts (Bullinger 1995).
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© 1999 Physica-Verlag Heidelberg
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Lay, G., Mies, C. (1999). Flexibility at Work. In: Lay, G., Shapira, P., Wengel, J. (eds) Innovation in Production. Technology, Innovation and Policy, vol 8. Physica-Verlag HD. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-99801-0_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-99801-0_7
Publisher Name: Physica-Verlag HD
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