Abstract
In West Germany, the humanization of work was closely linked to the federal government’s research and action program “Humanization of Working Life” from 1974 to 1989. This program combined demands for improved occupational health and safety and greater employee participation in companies with the broader goal of democratizing work and was an expression of social democratic reform euphoria at the beginning of the 1970s. Nevertheless, the plan of the social democratic-led federal government met with considerable criticism from trade unions. This article examines the origins and trade union criticism of the program. It argues that the program and the discussions about the humanization of work were embedded in a broader discourse on the “quality of life”—a debate that had been reacting to multiple crises in industrial society since the 1960s.
