What Lessons Can Previous Reductions in Working Hours Teach for the Debate on the 32-Hour Week?

This article asks what lessons can be learned from the introduction of the 35-hour week for the current debate in the steel industry. In retrospect, it can be shown that a compromise in collective bargaining policy cleared the way from the 40- to the 35-hour week. A package of shorter and more flexible working hours could also make the 32-hour week possible in the steel industry in a similarly cost- and distribution-neutral way, especially as large sections of the workforce there already work less than 35 hours.