CDU on work and social affairs

The CDU wants to help companies recruit skilled workers from abroad and speed up residence procedures. The Berlin Welcome Center is to get welcome managers, and housing for employees and apprentices is to be expanded.

Berlin wants more skilled workers from other countries. Offices should work faster. Workers should get one person to help them. There should be more dorms for apprentices.

Labor and economic policy are to be combined in one Senate department. For international skilled workers, the plan includes faster and reliable residence procedures, housing and more international schools. Welcome managers are to support skilled workers and their families and ease their integration. The employee housing initiative is to be pushed forward, apprentice dorms built with state-owned companies, and an Azubiwerk Berlin set up as a central contact point for apprentices.

The CDU wants to give the Berlin city cleaning company (BSR) more staff, as finances allow, and assign it more responsibilities such as green spaces and playgrounds. Long-term unemployed people would work there through mini-jobs and asylum seekers through community work opportunities.

The city cleaning company BSR should get more workers. It should also clean parks and playgrounds. Long-term jobless people should get mini-jobs there. Asylum seekers should do community work there. This should help them integrate.

The BSR is to clean more parks, playgrounds and forest areas. Mini-jobs are meant to offer new prospects to the long-term unemployed. Asylum seekers are to take first steps toward integration through so-called non-profit additional work opportunities. The BVG cleaning patrols on the U8 subway line are to be extended to other lines. Playground sponsorships modeled on Spandau and volunteer "Kehrenbürger" cleanup campaigns are to be promoted citywide.

The CDU wants legally mandated benefit cuts for people who deliberately evade official measures to be applied consistently. Authorities are to share data on a binding basis, and benefit fraud is to be fought more vigorously.

Some people do not cooperate with the authorities. The law then allows cuts to their benefits. The CDU wants these cuts applied every time. Offices should share data for this. Benefit fraud should be pursued more.

The State Office for Immigration and the districts are to cooperate more closely through mandatory data sharing. Emergency housing for homeless people is to be relieved by fighting organized fraud. The CDU backs federal plans for tighter eligibility checks and wants Berlin to be a national focus in fighting benefit abuse. It also calls for a federal reform of social law guided by the welfare reform commission's recommendations; social welfare offices are to be digitized and grant law modernized.

The CDU wants people with disabilities to participate equally in working life. A central state advisory center is to advise employers on hiring, funding and inclusion. The party also sees this as a response to labor shortages.

People with disabilities should be able to work. The CDU wants an advice center for employers. Companies get help there. For example, about funding and hiring.

Placement in the regular job market, inclusive businesses and sheltered workshops are to be strengthened. Red tape is to be reduced, especially for small, medium-sized and micro businesses. Representatives for severely disabled employees are to be strengthened and get better working conditions.

The CDU wants to lower liability and tax barriers to food donations. Businesses should find it easier to give surplus food for social purposes, which is also meant to reduce food waste.

Companies often have leftover food. They should be able to donate it more easily. The CDU wants to change rules on liability and taxes. Less food will be thrown away.

The CDU wants to back an initiative in the Bundesrat (federal council of states) for this. It is to bring tax relief and clear liability rules. At EU level, a legal category of 'charitable food business operator' is to be created.

The CDU wants income young people earn from student jobs, holiday work or apprenticeships to no longer be deducted from their parents' social benefits. This is meant to let young people from low-income families show initiative and take responsibility early.

Some teenagers have a side job. Their parents get money from the state. Today, the teen's pay is deducted from it. The CDU wants to change this. Teens should keep their money.

The rule is to cover student jobs, holiday work and apprenticeship pay. The aim is to support children and young people from low-income families. The CDU justifies this as encouraging initiative.

The CDU wants to prevent homelessness earlier and expand help for homeless people. Plans include a central 'House of Help', a state program modeled on Neukölln's Safe Places project and better medical care.

Many people in Berlin have no home. The CDU wants to help them more. There should be a 'House of Help'. Homeless people find help there in one place. There should also be help before people lose their homes.

Street outreach is to be restructured and the districts strengthened; shelters are to take mental illness, addiction and disabilities into account, with more services for women. Health centers, psychiatric services and sick bays for homeless people are to be established in all districts, based on the State Health Conference's concept. For prevention, debt and social counseling are to be expanded and decisions on covering rent arrears sped up. The program names Housing First as a possible approach.

The CDU wants to make family and work easier to combine through more flexible working hours and models suited to different stages of life. At the federal level, it wants to introduce a weekly rather than a daily working-time rule.

Many families want more time together. The CDU wants more flexible working hours. The rules should fit every stage of life. The federal government should set a weekly limit. Then hours count per week, not per day.

The program bases the proposal on many families' wish for more time together. It calls for modern working-time models for different phases of life. At the federal level, the CDU backs introducing a weekly working-time limit.

The CDU wants to expand district senior services and create staffed help points where older people get support with digital services. Loneliness is to be addressed as a social problem.

Older people should get more services. There should be places where helpers assist with online services. For example, with online banking. There should be office hours against loneliness. Park benches should invite people to chat.

For senior services, partnerships with church and independent providers are to be examined and local meeting places created. Activity areas for seniors are to be kept, maintained and opened to all generations. In municipal facilities, trained helpers bound to confidentiality should assist with government portals, online banking or postal services, backed by training courses. All neighborhood centers should offer weekly loneliness office hours, along with subsidized "chat benches."