CDU/CSU on work and social affairs

The CDU and the CSU want to move social insurance contributions back toward 40 percent. This is meant above all to relieve low earners. An annual report is to show how the social insurance funds are developing.

The CDU and the CSU want lower payments for social insurance. The payments should move back toward 40 percent. This should help people with low pay. A report should check the social funds every year.

The platform names 40 percent as the target for total social insurance contributions. The parties justify this with the principle that people who work should have more money than people who do not. An annual report on the sustainability of the welfare state is to monitor the social insurance funds. On that basis, the parties want to take whatever measures are needed.

The CDU and the CSU want to change the Working Hours Act and replace the daily maximum working time with a weekly one. Remote work and working from home are also to get clearer legal rules. The platform regards labor law as outdated and wants to adapt it to a digital world of work.

The CDU and the CSU want to change the rules on working hours. Today there is a limit per day. In the future there should be a limit per week. Working from home should also get clear rules.

The weekly cap is to apply to all companies and follow the EU Working Time Directive. High occupational safety standards are to remain, especially in hazardous jobs, because the risk of accidents rises there after eight hours. Remote work at freely chosen locations is not to fall under the Workplace Ordinance, and voluntary work from home is to count as a form of remote work. Cross-border remote work within the EU is to become legally secure and flexible. Companies are to find it easier to lend each other staff with the consent of the works councils.

The CDU and the CSU want a skilled-labor drive to bring more people in Germany into work or longer hours. Above all, women working part-time are to find it easier to work more, and unskilled helpers are to catch up on a vocational qualification. The platform sees the labor shortage as a risk to Germany as a business location.

The CDU and the CSU say: Germany lacks workers. Women in part-time jobs should find it easier to work more. People should be able to deduct more household help from their taxes. Helpers should be able to get a job qualification later.

Conditions for full-time or near-full-time work are to improve, and the platform names women in part-time jobs as a group with particular potential. Household-related services are to be more easily tax-deductible. People in helper jobs are to be supported on their way to becoming skilled workers and given incentives to gain vocational qualifications. The ban on fixed-term contracts after prior employment is to be dropped for people past the standard retirement age so that their contracts are legally secure.

The CDU and the CSU want to abolish Bürgergeld (citizen's income) in its current form and introduce a "Neue Grundsicherung" (new basic income support). In the parties' view, Bürgergeld weakens the incentive to work; anyone who can work and refuses work on principle is to get no benefit at all.

The CDU and the CSU want to end Bürgergeld (citizen's income). A new basic support should replace it. People who can work should work. People who refuse all work should get no more money. The office should check people's assets from day one.

Placing people in jobs is to take priority again, and job centers are to focus on intensive support and training. Duties to cooperate are to be enforced more strictly, with sanctions for violations. The waiting period is dropped: assets are checked right away, and the protected amount depends on years worked. Rules on extra earnings are to change so that working more pays off, and the yearly benefit adjustment is no longer to outpace wage growth. Against abuse, the parties plan a full exchange of data between agencies and a stronger unit for fighting undeclared work. Social benefits are to be paid out digitally and from a single source; the Federal Employment Agency is to build up a reserve.

The CDU and the CSU want more employees to be covered by collective agreements and want to modernize worker participation in companies. They want to keep the statutory minimum wage, but its level is to remain a matter for the independent commission, not parliament.

The CDU and the CSU want more collective agreements. These are contracts between unions and employers about pay and work. The minimum wage should stay. A commission should decide how high it is, not politicians. Works councils should also be able to meet and vote online.

It is to become easier to declare collective agreements generally binding, with employers and unions keeping the main say in the bargaining committee. More opt-out clauses are to allow arrangements that fit the individual company. The founding of works councils must not be obstructed; meetings, assemblies and elections are to be possible online as well, and digital access rights are to be clarified. The parties expect the minimum wage commission to decide by consensus. They reject a European unemployment insurance because, in their view, labor market policy is a matter for the member states.

The CDU and the CSU want to make it easier for people with disabilities to enter training and work and to remove everyday barriers faster. Alongside inclusive options, sheltered workshops and special-needs schools are to be kept.

The CDU and the CSU want to help people with disabilities more. They should find training and work more easily. Buses and trains should become barrier-free faster. Sheltered workshops and special schools should stay.

The program wants to strengthen placement in regular companies as well as inclusive companies and sheltered workshops. Social benefits are to be planned jointly so that people do not have to deal with many agencies separately. Applications for assistive devices are to become simpler, especially for children. Obstacles in public transit and from parked rental bikes and scooters are to disappear faster. Sign language is to be promoted as a minority language.