The Berlin FDP has rejected considerations of a model project for a four-day week in the administration. “Appointments in Berlin’s citizens’ offices are scarce, so that vehicle registrations and re-registrations, passport documents or even the application for a birth certificate sometimes take months,” criticized FDP state chairman Christoph Meyer. The debate therefore comes at the wrong time.
Berlin’s new Senator for Labor and Social Affairs, Cansel Kiziltepe, had the “Tagesspiegel” newsletter “Checkpoint” said that the four-day week was worth trying out in a model project and welcomed the discussion on the subject in principle.
The SPD politician pointed out that more than 44,000 employees in the Berlin administration are expected to retire in the next eight years and argued: “If we as the state of Berlin want to be an attractive employer, we have to make good offers to young people if we want to get them excited about jobs in administration.”
FDP country chief Meyer countered that the fact that Kiziltepe was considering a model project in the Berlin administration was unrealistic. Thousands of employees are already missing there. “What the city needs now are modernization and transformation processes to finally equip Berlin with a powerful, fast, efficient and accessible administration.” (dpa)
