In an HDE survey of 500 retail companies, 89% of respondents said they suffered from high or very high bureaucratic burdens. 97% of respondents said they had been affected by increased bureaucracy in the past five years. “Reducing bureaucracy has been a popular slogan at all political levels for decades. The current federal government has made great efforts to reduce bureaucracy and thus relieve the burden on companies. But it seems that not much of this has yet been achieved in practice. In addition, we are all still facing a veritable tsunami of regulations from Brussels,” said HDE President Alexander von Preen. Around half of respondents attributed most of the bureaucracy to the federal level. Around a quarter see the EU level as the main cause. Companies feel particularly constrained by documentation requirements (74%) and reporting requirements (71%). Larger companies in particular suffer from these. For medium-sized companies, tax requirements in particular pose a challenge. Overall, the areas of human resources (77%) and taxes (69%) were frequently cited as challenges. “It cannot continue like this. There have been good approaches in recent years, but it is not enough. We need bolder and bigger steps in reducing bureaucracy,” said the HDE President. Working hours are about more flexibility, the rigid daily maximum working hours no longer meet the requirements of the digitalized world of work. There needs to be a change to a weekly maximum working time directly in the Working Hours Act. With regard to working time documentation, the HDE is calling for a leaner solution. The associated documentation obligations must be streamlined. In addition, according to the HDE, it is necessary to delete the additional national regulations in the Federal Data Protection Act on the appointment of a data protection officer. This would mean that the GDPR regulations would apply uniformly across the EU.
Over 90% of retailers complain about growing bureaucracy
