The key facts

  • German law limits the working day to 8 hours (up to 10 with time off); business and CDU/CSU want a weekly limit under the EU directive (48 hours)
  • The reform draft from the labour ministry (June 2026) with conditions — collective agreements, electronic time tracking — was rejected by CDU/CSU and employers
  • The SPD in October 2026 released the document 'Self-Determination, Not Deregulation'; the position of new labour minister Alexander Schweitzer is unclear

Dispute over working time flexibility

A dispute has flared up in Germany within the ruling coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD over reform of the working time law. Under the current law, the standard working day is limited to eight hours, with the possibility of extending it to ten provided time off is compensated and there are at least 11 hours of rest between shifts. Business associations and conservative parties have long demanded more flexible rules. Rainer Dulger, president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA), cites the European working time directive allowing a maximum of 48 hours per week: according to him, 'this option is used almost everywhere — except here.' He told the dpa agency in August that the working time law 'dates from the era of fax machines and dial telephones' and does not take into account laptops or kindergarten schedules. Companies complain that the rules are too rigid for industries with seasonal fluctuations, project work and peak loads, for example in the restaurant business.

The Leuna example and the chancellor's words

In the city of Leuna in Saxony-Anhalt, one of Germany's largest chemical industry centres with more than 100 companies operating there, the Finnish biotechnology group UPM recently built a biorefinery and is looking for chemical process engineers willing to work 12-hour shifts. Chancellor Friedrich Merz, after visiting the UPM plant in September, said at Employers' Day in Berlin that he was 'completely surprised' to learn about the continuous 12-hour shift schedule approved by the works council. According to him, the shift supervisor called the schedule 'really excellent' — with a three-day working week and time for family. Merz concluded that this shows the benefit of loosening the law: 'Working more than eight hours is not exploitation. It can be a good opportunity to organise working time flexibly — for both business and people. We should do this.' The SPD, for its part, points out that longer shifts are already permitted in exceptional cases — in emergency services, healthcare, security structures, as well as at power stations, oil refineries and chemical plants.

Coalition compromise and reform draft

In the 2025 coalition agreement, CDU/CSU and SPD agreed to reform the working time law, moving 'in accordance with the European directive' from a daily to a maximum weekly limit, including 'to promote a better work-life balance.' The SPD would have preferred to leave the law unchanged, but accepted the conservatives' plans. The first draft of the reform was prepared in June 2026 by the labour ministry headed by Bärbel Bas (SPD), who later resigned for personal reasons. The draft contained conditions: a collective agreement when changing schedules, occupational safety standards and electronic time tracking. Annika Klose, the SPD faction's spokesperson on labour and social policy, explained that flexibility is 'not a one-way street': the goal is to make it possible, for example, to take a child to football during the day and continue working afterwards, not for a boss to schedule a shift from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. against someone's will.

Rejection of the draft and deadlock

CDU/CSU immediately rejected the draft, as did business. Dulger demanded the document be 'withdrawn and completely reworked,' calling it 'steeped in distrust.' The German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH) spoke of a 'violation of commitments enshrined in the coalition agreement.' Since then, the reform has been blocked. The Verdi union opposes the changes, arguing that a significantly longer working day would harm workers' health, disadvantage people with family and caregiving responsibilities, and that in some industries employees could be forced into long shifts. At Employers' Day, Merz expressed hope for quick progress: 'This is long overdue. I think we can do this relatively quickly and create flexibility in the labour market.'

The SPD's position and uncertainty

In early October 2026, the SPD published a seven-page document 'Self-Determination, Not Deregulation,' signed by the labour working group, the youth organisation Jusos, the '60plus' group and the party's women's wing; DW characterises it as a 'declaration of war' on the CDU. The Social Democrats repeated the points of Bas's June draft and demanded that employers and workers henceforth determine working time 'jointly and by mutual agreement,' since determining the end of the working day by the employer alone 'does not correspond to the spirit of a modern reform.' Whether the new labour minister from the SPD, Alexander Schweitzer, will stick to this position remains unclear. According to DW's assessment, the dispute has long gone beyond legal details and has become a fundamental question of how much flexibility workers can be expected to provide and to what extent the state should protect them — and another stumbling block for an already struggling government in Berlin.