Überstundenabbau – der Königsweg zu mehr Beschäftigung?

Innerhalb der Suche nach Wegen zur Bekämpfung der Arbeitslosigkeit nahm die Diskussion über die Reduktion von Überstunden in den letzten Monaten eine zentrale Position ein. Dies galt in ganz besonderem Maße für die Gespräche zwischen Gewerkschaften und Arbeitgeberverbänden über ein Bündnis für Arbeit in der Metallindustrie. Bisher konnte man sich allerdings noch nicht über tarifvertragliche Regelungen zum Überstundenabbau einigen. Die in der gesamten öffentlichen Diskussion vorgebrachten Argumente lassen sich auf die Frage hin zuspitzen: Kann Überstundenabbau als Königsweg zu mehr Beschäftigung gelten oder handelt es sich um eine Sackgasse, an deren Ende kein neuer Arbeitsplatz steht? In times of high unemployment we are regularly confronted with the claim of cutting overtime hours in order to reduce unemployment. At the end of last year the IG-Metall (industrial union) chairman Zwickel has started a discussion about a „Bündnis für Arbeit“ (pact for labour and jobs) in which this approach takes a central point. In this discussion we find two conflicting lines of arguments. For the supporters, overtime hours are an element to the organisation of working hours. They argue that overtime hours help crushioning unpredictable as well as seasonal order peaks. Besides, personnel bottleneck of short duration can be easily bridged (microeconomic point of view). In contrast, the critics of overtime hours deny such an in-firm necessity. Instead, they point out that the assignment of overtime hours as means of higher flexibility is not necessary. According to their opinion, different means can ce used. Overtime hours would lead to a stabilisation or rather an increase of the overall economic unemployment (macroeconomic point of view). Analysing the different kinds of overtime hours shows that even their supporters do not have convincing arguments against the reduction of regularly (seasonally) paid overtime. The trade unions, work councils, as well as employers associations and management are asked to fully use the given potential of job creation. Furthermore they should more intensely direct their attention on supporting annual working time contracts and working time accounts. If such annual contracts and time accounts are introduced on a large scale, the discussion abbout overtime hours will take care of itself.