Out of concern for excessive workload, porsche works council chairman uwe huck demands deletion of business e-mails during free time.
Employee mail accounts should be blocked between 7 p.M. And 6 a.M., as well as on weekends and during vacation, huck told the deutsche presse agency in stuttgart. "Reading and answering emails from the boss in the evening is unpaid working time that increases stress – that’s not on at all."Mails that arrive during this time should be automatically returned to the sender and no longer be available in the employee’s mailbox, i.E. Automatically deleted.
Huck is aiming for a corresponding works agreement that would provide for such a mail block. The plan would be a tightening of rules of the porsche parent company VW. At the wolfsburg carmaker, salaried employees can no longer receive or send company e-mails between 6 p.M. And 6 a.M. During the week or on weekends. Geloscht these however not – in the morning is the electronic post then to read. This is "comparable to a radio hole", says a VW works council spokesman.
Such a rule does not go far enough for huck. "What’s the point of blocking e-mails if you have to go to the office and deal with a huge amount of e-mails?."Important mails had to be sent again during the day, according to the works council. However, there are supposed to be exceptions, for example for the late shift or for colleagues whose jobs include communication with china or the USA, i.E. Markets in other time zones.
Carmaker daimler has a similar system in place. Employees can set up their e-mail accounts so that electronic mail is automatically deleted while they are on vacation and the sender is notified. But this is voluntary – there is no compulsory rule. The losch offer is being used, says a daimler spokesman. But there are no statistics on the use of the system. This is an individual decision of the employee, which is "demanded and respected". At BMW, on the other hand, there is a "right to be unavailable after work, on vacation and at weekends". But the mail servers at munich will not be blocked in the meantime.
According to porsche works council head huck, tighter protection for the workforce also makes good business sense. "The shortage of skilled workers will become more acute, the search for employees will become increasingly difficult – so you have to nurture your staff so that they stay with the company for as long as possible."If, on the other hand, nothing is done about the high workload, the personnel shortage in the economy will worsen. "Without better protective conditions, a wave of burnouts was coming," huck warned.
Support for huck’s proposal came from the left-wing parliamentary group in the bundestag. "Many people work until they drop. We must finally put a stop to this," said vice faction leader klaus ernst and called for legal regulations such as an anti-stress ordinance and a general reduction in the weekly maximum working time to 40 hours. Employees who are available around the clock can no longer switch off. "That makes you sick in the long run," he said.
The e-mail rules that huck is proposing should only apply to employees paid according to collective bargaining agreements; non-pay-scale employees – such as managers – were excluded. "If you’re a manager and you get a big bonus, you can still answer a mail in the evening," he said.
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