德國僱主協會:員工上班可看世界盃
Germans should be allowed to watch the football World Cup on television at work without getting into trouble with their superiors, the head of the national employers' association said Thursday.
Dieter Hundt, often called the "boss of the bosses", called on companies to cut their staff a little slack when footballmania strikes over the next month.
"I am confident that employers, while considering the needs of their businesses, will react flexibly and, together with their workforces, develop their own policies," he told the daily Berliner Zeitung.
Every company needs to decide for itself "to what extent it can strike a balance with the broadcast of World Cup games and working hours".
Hundt's counterpart at the German Federation of Trade Unions, Michael Sommer, welcomed the employers' pledge of tolerance when asked by the Berliner Zeitung.
Watching soccer together encourages "team cohesion and staff motivation," he argued.
He noted that several of the World Cup matches in South Africa were taking place in the early afternoon, including the second match featuring the German side, against Serbia on June 18.
德國僱主協會主席於本週四稱，德國公司應允許員工們在上班時觀看世界盃賽電視轉播，老闆們應對此表示寬容。
素有“老闆的老闆”之稱的德國僱主協會主席迪特•亨特呼籲各公司在未來一個月的世界盃期間對員工們放鬆點要求。
他在接受《柏林日報》採訪時說：“我相信各公司在考慮企業需要的同時，會靈活應變，並和全體員工一起制定出對策。”
“但如何平衡看球和工作時間的問題”，還是由各公司自行決定。
德國工會聯盟主席邁克•鬆梅爾在接受《柏林日報》採訪時也對各公司世界盃期間將實行的寬鬆政策表示歡迎。
他表示，一起看足球賽能增強“團隊凝聚力和激發員工的積極性”。
他指出，南非世界盃的幾場球賽都是在午後進行，包括6月18日德國對陣塞爾維亞的第二場比賽。
Vocabulary:
cut sb. a little/some slack: 放某人一馬，饒了某人，對某人寬容一點。（It's your first day here, so I'm going to cut you some slack this time. Next time, you need to do much better. 看在這是你的第一天，我就不嚴格要求了，下次你可得幹好點兒。）
