Germany votes to extend weekend store hours

BERLIN -- A law giving harried German consumers more time for weekend shopping cleared parliament Thursday, a small but symbolic loosening of economic regulations on the eve of major speech by the country's leader.

The government hopes the move will enliven depressed consumer spending weighing on Europe's biggest economy, which grew just 0.2 percent last year and shows little sign of picking up.

Labor unions have for years defended rules that shut stores from Saturday at 4 p.m. until Monday morning, causing crowded aisles, fast-emptying shelves and bad-tempered checkout lines.

But Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's increasing desperation to revive the economy and reverse a rise in unemployment that has eroded his popularity prompted him to take on his Social Democratic Party's union allies.

Lawmakers from his center-left coalition voted Thursday to let storekeepers stay open an extra four hours on Saturdays.

"It's a solution that's fair to the needs of consumers and the retailers," deputy economics minister Gerd Andres said.

Unions had argued that people had plenty of time to shop under the old rules that kept stores open until 8 p.m. during the week.

"Instead of government promises to make it easier to combine work with family life, free time together is being sacrificed to the interests of the retailers," Franziska Wiethold of the ver.di service union said.

He pledged to push for a pay increase for the country's more than 2 million store clerks. Union officials also said the change would do nothing to create jobs.

But on Berlin's Friedrichstrasse shopping avenue, dotted with boutiques and luxury car showrooms, shoppers were quick to disagree.

"You have to move with the times and give the stores the chance to do more business," said Hildegard Heinemann, 48, before disappearing into a clothes store. "Given the choice between unemployment and weekend work, there'll be enough volunteers."

The change came as Schroeder was preparing to give what is being billed as a watershed speech Friday laying out sweeping changes to Germany's tightly regulated labor market and cuts to its generous welfare state.

Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement said Thursday the Cabinet agreed to make it easier for small firms to hire and fire staff. He also underlined plans to make it harder for young jobseekers to turn down an offer.

The new hours are expected to come into force by the summer, in the first such relaxation since the 1990s, when 1 1/2 hours were added on weekdays and two hours on Saturdays.

Margot Sondermann, a retiree clutching a bag of provisions, said the weekend rule was "stupid" but doubted the change would do much for the economy.

"You only shop once," Sondermann said. "If I really need something and can't get hold of it, I go for mail-order or the Internet."