“Part-time work must be the exception, not the rule,” said politician Michael Kretschmer in an interview with German newspaper The Handelsblatt published earlier this week. As part of his campaign to be re-elected to the state parliament this year, the centre-right CDU minister homed in on the question of Germany’s productivity. “We have to ensure that we come out of the crisis with growth and full employment – for me that means a 40-hour week for everyone,” he said. “It was a mistake that the option of part-time has gone from being an exception to a legally secured rule.” Since 2001, when Ger…