There’s nothing that brings the world together quite like sports. Even when you consider something like the fall of the Berlin Wall, I think that these days, the fortunes of the German national football team means as much or more to the people from Germany. Germans are so into football (soccer) that they threatened to eat a World Cup-predicting octopus when he picked Spain to best them in 2010. (Nevermind the fact that Paul the Octopus picked right.) German labor unions are asking employers to show a little leniency with late workers during this year’s World Cup in Brazil.
“It would a noble move by employers if they showed a bit of flexibility during the World Cup,” said Robert Feiger, the head of the construction, engineering and forestry union IGBAU. “For Germany games after 10 pm, work should start a little bit later if possible.”
Due to Germany’s high seeding and the time difference, Germany’s World Cup matches will routinely start after midnight back home, and that means a lot of tired workers in the early morning after games; I should know, during Kentucky’s run to the NCAA championship, I was dead at work every morning after every game. Of course, it’s up to employers to go with this or not, so we’ll see if Germany relaxes a little or if precision and timeliness win out.
Tags: germany, world cup, world cup football, soccer, germany wants workers to be late after world cup games, late workers after world cup games, german unions want leniency for late employees due to world cup games, brazil, robert feiger, igbau