Germany's IG Metall union is to demand the introduction of a four-day week with full salary, said a union negotiator ahead of a new round of collective bargaining talks covering steel workers in the north-west of the country.
"We want to achieve real relief for the workers without them earning less because of it," Knut Giesler, the district leader of IG Metall for North Rhine Westphalia, told the Westdeutsche Allgemeine newspaper.
He said a four-day week would be a big step forward for workers' quality of life and their health.
The change would, in his view, make the industry more attractive to young people, especially as steel firms will need new workers as they try to shift from coal to climate-friendlier hydrogen production.
According to the newspaper report, Giesler's concrete idea for the introduction of the four-day week is to reduce the working week from 35 to 32 hours, with full wage compensation, although he acknowledged the alteration could require a long phase-in period.
If eventually agreed, the deal could apply to the German states of North Rhine Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Hesse and Bremen.
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