Blackberry ‘reprieve’ for Volkswagen employees

December 24th, 2011 - 12:13 am ICT by Aishwarya Bhatt  

Munich, Dec 23 (THAINDIAN NEWS) In a landmark ruling, workers of German automaker Volkswagen have been given some “reprieve” from demanding bosses. The giant carmaker will be forced to switch off its Blackberry email servers thirty minutes after each shift and switch it on only thirty minutes before the start of another shift.

With this arrangement, VW workers will only get email messages from their bosses only during their shift. The move is a massive victory for the workers who say they still feel like being at work even when they have closed for hours.

The ruling affects only workers whose input can be excused. Top level managers and other essential workers will still have to deal with being contacted anytime. Being contacted after working hours by your boss is one of the worse nightmares of any worker.

Workers have complained that it places them under constant pressure and stressed.

During an interview with the German newspaper Wolfburger Allgemeine Zeitung, Heinz-Joachim Thrust of VW’s works council explained that, “The new possibilities of communication also contain inherent dangers.”

It is not currently clear when the automaker will start implementing the new measure. Some other firms have the option for workers to decline being contacted outside working hours.

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