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To: RealMuLan who wrote (43449)	12/16/2003 8:11:12 PM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Bosch seeks increase to working hours or will move to China!! China seems to be forcing countries to rediscover their lost working ethics. Bosch seeks increase to working hours By Peter Marsh in London and Hugh Williamson in Berlin Published: December 16 2003 21:07 \| Last Updated: December 16 2003 21:07 Bosch, the German industrial group, said it may move more jobs out of Germany to lower-wage countries unless it succeeds in efforts to increase the working hours of some German employees, without paying them more. The statement was immediately condemned as "unnecessary provocation" by IG Metall, Germany's largest engineering union. It raises the temperature in attempts by German employers to increase working time in a bid to improve the country's competitiveness. Franz Fehrenbach, chairman of Bosch, said that the company was talking to representatives of its 103,000-strong German workforce about increasing the working week from 35 to 40 hours, while pegging wages. "If we don't succeed, then it is likely that we will accelerate the move to setting up new plants out of Germany especially in the low-wage countries," Mr Fehrenbach told the FT. Bosch has 133,000 employees outside Germany, including more than 40,000 in low-wage countries such as China, India and the Czech Republic. Frank Stroh, spokesman for IG Metall's regional office in Stuttgart, said Bosch's "highly organised" employees were likely to reject an increase to 40 hours a week. "Such an increase could mean every seventh employee losing their job. That is completely unacceptable," Mr Stroh said. However, several companies have recently negotiated longer working hours of 40-41 hours, including Continental, the tyre maker. Mr Fehrenbach said that if the company could make progress with these talks - which it is conducting on a plant-by-plant basis with representatives of unions including IG Metall - it would cut its costs per hour in the factories concerned by 12 per cent. Mr Fehrenbach said it was vital for the company to become "more cost competitive" if it wanted to increase profits that were vital for investment. The Gesamtmetall engineering employers' association covering Germany raised the proposal of employees agreeing to extra working hours - without compensation - at a meeting this week with IG Metall to discuss pay. Leaders of Germany's Christian Democratic Union opposition party recently called for longer working hours to boost German competitiveness. Employees in western Germany work an average of 35.7 hours a week, some of the shortest in the world, compared with 37.2 in the UK and 40 in the US. Eastern Germans work an average of 38.3 hours a week.