Florists demand five-day week: a life between flowers and stress!

Florists demand five-day week: a life between flowers and stress!

In the Mecklenburg Lake District district, over 100 employees work in the floristry industry, with the majority of the florists women. These creative minds not only produce bouquets, wreaths and arrangements, but also decorate shop windows, sales rooms and hotel foyers. But despite their essential role in large life events such as baptisms, weddings and funerals, many florists are faced with hard working conditions. Wolfgang Ehlert from IG Bau-Agrar-Umwelt describes the situation as unsustainable and calls for a five-day week and a 32-day annual vacation for the florists. The annual vacation is currently only 24 days, while many employees often have to work for up to six days at a time.

In addition, Ehlert emphasizes the need for overtime remuneration, which are not guaranteed in many companies. The union IG Bau Ostmecklenburg-Western Pomerania is currently planning negotiations with the Association of German Florists (FDF) to negotiate a new collective agreement. The concerns of the florists, who often work with high pressure and little free time, are supported by Elisabeth Wolff, a florist and chairman of IG Bau. She speaks openly about the dissatisfaction in the industry, caused by long working weeks and scarce vacation.

challenges in the industry

In the florist industry, a six-day week is not uncommon, which leads to a compression of working hours, especially in the high season in spring. Flower shops are often overcrowded on the Sunday before Mother's Day, and sales for Mother's Day gifts were over one billion euros last year. 60 percent of buyers opted for flowers, which underlines the great importance of the florists for the tradition of gifting flower. Despite this high demand, many employees only do their work with the statutory minimum leave of 20 days, since overtime surcharges are rare.

The union planned to enforce several significant improvements in the new collective agreement. This includes the introduction of a five-day week, 32 days of annual vacation and overtime surcharges from the very beginning. The better reconciliation of family and work is also on the agenda. Ehlert and Wolff agree that the growing loads affect the motivation of the florists and that they are also noticed by customers.

professional and social inequalities

A central problem in the industry is the bypass of tariff bonds from large florist chains, which leads to lower wages. The majority of the industry is one of the low -wage sectors, and it is alarming that the majority of employees are women. With over 27,000 employees in floristry, it is high time that the working conditions and the wages of the florists are seriously improved.

IG Bau actively campaigns for the rights of the florists and requires fair working conditions that also improve the social and economic situation of the employees as a whole. The planned negotiations with the FDF could pass on this swing and bring about the long overdue changes in the industry.

For more information, visit ig bau .