Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Emulation: Bildung and the bureaucratic order
- Part II Reorientation: industrial capitalism and a “practical” profession
- Part III The crucible: technical careers and managerial power, 1900–1914
- 9 Career prospects and the Btib's reform efforts
- 10 The unified employment code and the Patent Law
- 11 Direct action
- 12 The reaction of the VDDI
- Epilogue
- Appendix
- Bibliographical note
- Index
10 - The unified employment code and the Patent Law
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Emulation: Bildung and the bureaucratic order
- Part II Reorientation: industrial capitalism and a “practical” profession
- Part III The crucible: technical careers and managerial power, 1900–1914
- 9 Career prospects and the Btib's reform efforts
- 10 The unified employment code and the Patent Law
- 11 Direct action
- 12 The reaction of the VDDI
- Epilogue
- Appendix
- Bibliographical note
- Index
Summary
Long before the competition clause was modified in 1914, salaried engineers and the social reformers associated with them had become frustrated with the lack of legislative progress. Heinz Potthoff articulated this sentiment when in June of 1913 he surveyed the string of failures since 1906. “In all those years,” Potthoff noted, “nothing has happened, absolutely nothing.” That nothing happened was in part the result of big-business obstructionism. Probably just as important was the internal divisiveness of the salaried-employee organizations. This is illustrated by the fate of another of the Btib's causes: the struggle for a unified employment code for salaried employees (einheitlitches Angestelltenrecht).
THE MOVEMENT FOR A UNIFIED EMPLOYMENT CODE
Like the “engineer proposals” of 1906, the idea of a unified code for salaried employees was the brainchild of Potthoff and received strong support from the Btib. The project evolved from their earlier attempts to establish parity between the Industrial Code and the Commercial Code. Those proposals came to be incorporated into more ambitious plans for standardization and improvement of the employment laws covering all salaried employees. The most advantageous terms of any existing special law were to be extended to all salaried employees. In addition, the reformers made specific recommendations for limitations on hours of work, collective bargaining, employee councils, paid vacation, job protection, and expansion of the jurisdiction of the industrial and commercial arbitration courts, as well as other rights.
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- Information
- New Profession, Old OrderEngineers and German Society, 1815–1914, pp. 255 - 287Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990