Robert Bosch GmbH

The largest labor union in Germany, the IG Metall who represents workers from industrial jobs such as car manufacturing and is the largest industrial union in Europe, has called for a four day work week.

The transformation to electric mobility, further automation, and digitization could lead to future cuts in the workforce of the German automotive companies, fueled by the Covid-19 recession. According to the union chairman Jörg Hoffmann, a four day work week could be the answer to structural changes in the automotive industry in order to prevent future job cuts.

Major German companies such as Daimer and Bosch have already made agreements to reduce working hours in order to retain specialists but cut costs at the same time.

The German engineering company Bosch has developed a rapid Covid-19 test that fulfills the requirements of the World Health Organization (WHO) and has an accuracy of over 95 percent. The rapid test can be used on-site by medical personal not trained for the laboratory and only needs a "Bosch Vivalytic analyzer" device. It takes less than two and a half hours to get the test results after the sample is taken.