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British Mini workers in tea break row with BMW

German bosses at BMW trying to increase efficiency at the Mini factory in Britain have run into opposition from disgruntled workers - after they wanted to shorten tea and toilet breaks.

Published: 16 April 2012 16:17 CEST

British Mini workers in tea break row with BMW

Desperate for a cuppa. Photo: DPA

A shift at the Mini factory in Oxford lasts nine hours and 15 minutes – but that includes two paid tea breaks – one lasting 26 minutes in the morning and one lasting 27 minutes in the afternoon. A half-hour lunch break is not paid.

Weekly business magazine Wirtschaftswoche reported at the weekend that BMW has crossed swords with the Unite trade union at the plant – by planning to reduce the total paid break time by ten minutes a day.

The total of 53 minutes of paid break is the longest anywhere in the BMW group, the magazine said.

There is also conflict over toilet arrangements, with a worker only being allowed to leave the running assembly line to go to the toilet if a co-worker agrees to take over their position.

Reports in the British press that this has led to workers urinating in rubbish bins while at the assembly line were denied by a Mini spokeswoman who said, “We have absolutely no evidence that rubbish bins are being used inappropriately.”

Unite has rejected a BMW offer of a six-percent wage increase saying conditions would reduce its value. The union is threatening a strike which would be the first at the company since 1984.

BMW posted record first quarter results last week, with Mini producing 68,210 vehicles, an increase of 12.1 percent over the same period a year ago, and the most ever in the first quarter of a year.

The Local/hc

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German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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