Bayer workers back to full-time work

Leverkusen, Germany - Bayer MaterialScience (BMS) will revert to its standard collectively agreed work week of 37.5 hours at its German sites, from 1 Nov. At the start of February the company had introduced a reduction in working time and a corresponding pay reduction of 6.7 percent to combat the effects of the financial crisis. An opening clause in the collective agreement was applied in order to avoid short-time working. With the reintroduction of normal working hours the rates of pay for some 4,100 employees will return to their normal level.

"The reason for lifting this special arrangement is the improvement in orders. Nevertheless the future business development of our customer industries still remains uncertain," said Dr. Tony Van Osselaer, labor director at BMS.

Short-time working would mainly have affected employees in production. "Thanks to the solidarity of all our employees, this was prevented," said Thomas de Win, chairman of the Central Works Council of Bayer AG. Managerial employees of Bayer MaterialScience were also affected by the cuts, which in their case included the cancellation of this year¹s round of pay increases.

BMS has a global workforce of around 15,000 people, of whom some 5,200 work at BMS AG in Germany. Similar measures were also taken at the international sites, adapted in each case to their economic situation.