Regional Agreement on Working Time Account - Contract concluded by IG Metall Baden-Württemberg (South-West-Germany) and the Employer Federation of that region

1. Baden-Württemberg - that is one of the seven regional organizations the IG Metall is divided into - concluded recently an agreement on working time accounts.

As you know, the regional organizations conduct the negotiations for collective agreements and they can settle agreements which are valid only for that region. That is the case with the new and first regional agreement at all (within the IG Metall) on working time accounts.

The IG Metall-region of Baden-Württemberg has about 400.000 members.

2. The new collective agreement gives permission to the works councils, to conclude company agreements on two types of working time accounts:
Flexible working time accounts;
Long term working time accounts.

3. Flexible working time account:

The flexible working time account is supposed to even out the fluctuations of capacity utilisation due to product and market cycles. That account is allowed to show a positive or negative balance.

Works councils and management can conclude a company agreement on flexible working time accounts. But these company agreements must define a concrete upper/lower limit for the positive/negative balance - and there is limit of 300 hours (in each direction) stipulated by the collective agreement. The company agreement must also contain rules which regulate the way of making up for the negative or positive balance.

4. Long term working time account:

(4.1) The long term working time account is supposed to serve the personal needs and interests with respect to planning the individual working life. Each employee who owns such a long term time account has a right to take advantage of the account for
shortening working life just before getting retired;
time off for individual qualification/training. The employer has no right to dispose of the account or to determine the way the employee uses his account balance.

(4.2) Company agreements concluded between works council and management can define further purposes for using the long term working time account (for example parental leave etc.)

(4.3) Of course, existing long term working time account balances must be used well before the time an employee gets retired. Reimbursement in cash is not allowed - with the exception of an unforeseen ending of the labour contract (due to death or other circumstances).

(4.4) The annual inflow to the long term account is limited: Employees are allowed to put till 152 hours into their long term account annually.

But it is not allowed, in case of exceeding the limit of the flexible working time account (see above), to transfer hours from the flexible individual working time account to the long term working time account!