德国雇主协会:员工上班可看世界杯

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.

德国雇主协会主席于本周四称，德国公司应允许员工们在上班时观看世界杯赛电视转播，老板们应对此表示宽容。

素有“老板的老板”之称的德国雇主协会主席迪特．亨特呼吁各公司在未来一个月的世界杯期间对员工们放松点要求。

他在接受《柏林日报》采访时说：“我相信各公司在考虑企业需要的同时，会灵活应变，并和全体员工一起制定出对策。”

“但如何平衡看球和工作时间的问题”，还是由各公司自行决定。

德国工会联盟主席迈克．松梅尔在接受《柏林日报》采访时也对各公司世界杯期间将实行的宽松政策表示欢迎。

他表示，一起看足球赛能增强“团队凝聚力和激发员工的积极性”。

他指出，南非世界杯的几场球赛都是在午后进行，包括6月18日德国对阵塞尔维亚的第二场比赛。

Vocabulary:

cut sb. a little/some slack: 放某人一马，饶了某人，对某人宽容一点。（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. 看在这是你的第一天，我就不严格要求了，下次你可得干好点儿。）