Service evening
The so-called service evening was a minor liberalization of the shop opening hours in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1989. The core of the regulation, the Long Thursday, was highly controversial domestically, but was well received by consumers and was therefore the forerunner of the next liberalization step in 1996.
background
In terms of land opening arrangements the Federal Republic of Germany had in the Nazi regime introduced 18: 30 regulation adopted. On November 28, 1956, the “Law on Shop Closures” was passed in the Federal Republic of Germany , which was valid from 1957. Shops could now be open Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. and on Saturdays until 2 p.m. Exceptions were facilities such as gas stations , kiosks , train station shops , pharmacies and restaurants . From July 17, 1957, you could also shop on the first Saturday of the month until 6 p.m. That day was called "Long Saturday". In 1960 it was allowed to open until 6 p.m. on the four Saturdays in Advent. After that, the shop closing law was not changed for almost 30 years.
The discussion about liberalization
In the federal election in 1987 , the black-yellow coalition under Helmut Kohl was confirmed in office. In the federal election campaign, the FDP had spoken out in favor of liberalization. However, the project was highly controversial in the coalition. In particular, the Christian Democratic workforce rejected longer working hours for those employed in retail. As a compromise, the coalition initially agreed to allow working hours on Thursday until 9 p.m., but to limit the Saturday opening hours. On normal Saturdays, shopping should only be allowed until 1:00 p.m. The Saturday opening rule was discussed in public as being unfriendly to consumers. On May 10, 1989, the coalition committee took up this criticism and decided to lower the liberalization on Thursday and to keep the Saturday opening time at 2:00 p.m. Only the “long” Saturdays in summer have been shortened from 6 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The new shop opening time of 8:30 p.m. should not only apply to retail. Authorities and service providers such as banks should also open longer on Thursday. The project was therefore called the service evening.
The project was not only controversial in the coalition. In rare cases, unions and large parts of the employers rejected the project. While the unions cited the less favorable working hours of the employees, the employers argued with the competitive paradox : the longer opening times increase personnel costs. Under the ceteris paribus assumption that the turnover of all dealers together remained constant, prices would rise or profits would fall.
In the press this was mostly criticized as structurally conservative.
"There is a spirit of mustiness, an encrustation, the fatal tendency to conveniently write down everything and everything and to limit the individual leeway that is behind the debate about the service evening"
"Instead of throwing the entire antiquated set of rules overboard - at least once on a trial basis - after a laborious guerrilla war in the coalition, the service evening ... has been decided, but on Saturday the consumer will face more nimble and regulation."
On June 1, 1989, the Bundestag Social Committee approved the law on June 2, 1989 with the coalition's votes against those of the SPD and the Greens. The service evening was possible from October 1, 1989. The vote was carried out by name on request. 200 MPs voted yes, 135 no and 8 abstained.
The 1989 collective bargaining dispute in retail
The trade union trade, banks and insurance (HBV) tried to prevent the liberalization of the opening times of the country through regulations of the collective agreement . This led to the strange situation that the employer side now had to defend the service evening that it had previously rejected.
The labor dispute lasted unusually long and was unusually tough. More than 200 companies with more than 30,000 employees were on strike. As a compromise, it was finally agreed that 6:30 pm was set as the regular end of working hours, but exceptions should be possible on Saturdays with the consent of the works council , if otherwise "competitive disadvantages compared to competitors due to late opening" would occur. In the end, HBV was certain: the “service evening will be a flop”. Only in some specialty shops that are not members of the employers' association and on the green field would the shops be open longer.
The acceptance of the service evening
After the regulations were passed, the mood among retailers turned. At the beginning of September, a DIHT survey of 12,000 retailers showed that a third would take part in the service evening. Under the pressure of competition, works councils in larger department stores also agreed to the long Thursdays. Attempts by the trade unions to ban such agreements through the labor courts have been unsuccessful.
The first service evening on October 5, 1989 was attended with great interest. While the unions had called for a boycott, those companies that had opened tried to attract customers with special promotions.
Business participation was higher in the cities than in the countryside. Participation was particularly high in shopping centers. In the Main-Taunus-Zentrum , for example, 90% of the shops took part. The large department stores with strong works councils, however, remained mostly closed.
In any case, the customer's acceptance of the service evening was high. In a survey after the first service evening, the majority of the 588 respondents said they welcomed the service evening. 13% of those questioned had also actively used it and spent an average of DM 150. There was also a positive aspect for the catering trade. 37% of the buyers also went out to dinner that evening.
The high level of acceptance quickly led to the proportion of participating companies increasing rapidly. At the end of the year, the retail companies reported: "Consumers have accepted the service evening".
After the positive experience with the service evening, a significantly more extensive liberalization of the shop opening times followed in 1996. When it was noticed that this one day was not enough to reach all citizens, the shop closing laws were changed so that from November 1, 1996 the shops were allowed to open Monday to Saturday from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., so the evening service was omitted .
Trivia
Service evening is an expression that was voted eighth in 1987 by the Society for the German Language when it was voted word of the year .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Working time regulations of July 26, 1934 (RGBl. I p. 803 )
- ↑ Working time regulations of April 30, 1938 (RGBl. I p. 447 )
- ↑ Service evening is controversial again; in: FAZ of May 5, 1989, p. 17
- ↑ New suggestions from Bonn at closing times; in: FAZ of May 11, 1989, p. 15
- ↑ Law on service evening passed; in: FAZ of June 3, 1989, p. 1
- ↑ Bundestag passes the service evening; in: FAZ of June 3, 1989, p. 11
- ↑ "Long Thursday" also in department stores ?; in: FAZ of June 29, 1989, p. 5
- ↑ Service evening becomes a flop; in: FAZ of July 28, 1989, p. 11
- ↑ More and more encouragement for a long Thursday; in: FAZ of September 12, 1989, p. 17
- ^ After negotiations about the long Thursday; in: FAZ of September 13, 1989, p. 17
- ^ The union is defeated in the dispute over shop opening; in: FAZ of September 29, 1989, p. 19
- ↑ Retail attracts with brass music and offers for high demand; in: FAZ of October 5, 1989, p. 41
- ^ Survey on the first service evening; in: FAZ of October 18, 1998, p. 18
- ↑ "Consumers have accepted the service evening"; in: FAZ of December 7, 1989, p. 17
- ↑ Closing time: In case of doubt for the emotional uplift - SPIEGEL ONLINE. In: spiegel.de. Retrieved December 25, 2014 .
- ↑ Word of the Year - GfdS. In: gfds.de. Retrieved December 25, 2014 .