CDU on work and social affairs

The CDU wants to invest heavily in workplace continuing education and link it more closely with vocational schools, universities, and adult education. Retraining is meant to secure jobs amid change driven by digitalization, climate protection, and aging.

The CDU wants to put a lot of money into training at work. People should be able to learn new things on the job. Universities and vocational schools should take part more. This should keep jobs safe.

Universities are to get more involved in continuing education; the platform cites the Professional School at Leuphana University Lüneburg as a model. Legal hurdles that hold vocational schools back from offering workplace training are to be reviewed and adjusted. Plans include additional degree programs for employees without a general university entrance qualification and a program of academic continuing education for vocationally qualified people such as master craftspeople. University teaching staff are to be able to work in adult education as well. The CDU also wants to work toward nationwide uniform certification of continuing education.

The CDU wants to encourage part-time arrangements for the transition to retirement so that older people can stay in work longer. Returning to a job after time spent raising a family is also to receive targeted support.

Older people should be able to work longer if they want. For this, the CDU wants part-time options before retirement. People who want to work again after family time should get help. This includes advice and training.

The part-time arrangements are meant as an incentive to keep working before retirement begins. Regardless of age, the CDU also wants to support moving from part-time back to full-time work. Counseling, training, and other help are planned for people returning after a family phase. The platform argues that the pace of digitalization increasingly makes coming back harder.

The CDU wants to merge the educational leave law and the adult education law into a new statute and set up state funding for a second career chance. Employees are to find it much easier to take part in continuing education, especially alongside their jobs.

The CDU wants a new law for training during working life. It should replace two old laws. Workers should be able to join courses more easily. The state should also give money for a second career.

According to the platform, people need free time and money for continuing education. Approaches from a pilot project on qualification in the digital transformation are to be made permanent and expanded. Funding tools for the transformation of the economy are to be better aligned and bundled into a clear, easily accessible offering. The planned state funding for a fresh career start is to be open at every stage of working life.

The CDU wants to support new working-time models, working from home and coworking while keeping jobs with social insurance at the core. At the same time, conditions for contract workers and temporary agency workers are to improve.

The CDU wants to make flexible working hours possible. Working from home should become easier. Regular jobs with social insurance should stay important. Temporary workers should get better conditions.

New working-time models and contract types are to be allowed but designed so that fairness is preserved. Companies and employees are to get help with individual working hours, which the program mainly links to family needs. Remote work and coworking spaces are meant to benefit rural areas in particular. The program also plans a weekly working-time account based on the existing EU directive. More advice services are planned for workers on service contracts and in temporary agency work.

The CDU wants more companies to be covered by collective agreements and wants to adapt workplace co-determination to a changing world of work. Employees should also be able to take a larger stake in their companies and share in their success.

The CDU wants more companies to pay agreed union wages. Works councils should become stronger. Workers should be able to share in their company's success.

The state's law on collective-wage compliance in public procurement is to be strengthened but made much less bureaucratic, and collective agreements are to be declared generally binding. On co-determination, the CDU wants to reduce ways of circumventing it. Small and medium-sized companies are to get coaching on employee participation. Works council and staff council elections are to be supported, with training for independent works councils. Cooperation with trade unions is to continue.

The CDU wants stricter and more prompt workplace safety inspections, especially at particularly hazardous sites. It cites the meat industry as an example of poor conditions and also wants to act more firmly against undeclared work.

The CDU wants to make workplaces safer. Authorities should check more strictly, mostly in dangerous workplaces. The CDU names the meat industry as a bad example. It also wants to fight illegal work harder.

Occupational safety rules are to be adjusted, especially with regard to conditions in the meat industry. The state's tax and occupational safety authorities are to give more weight to undeclared work and cooperate with customs. For new forms of work such as working from home, the CDU wants to change the rules so that safety standards apply and both employers and employees have legal certainty.

The CDU plans a state program for people who are hard to place in jobs. It sees them as untapped workers who can help companies in the state stay competitive.

Some people have a hard time finding a job. The CDU wants to help them with a state program. This includes people who have been out of work for a long time. Companies need these workers.

Target groups include the long-term unemployed, single parents, older people, young people without vocational training and people with an immigrant background. Existing training projects are to be evaluated for lasting effect, and new ones are to take the needs created by digitalization more into account. A pilot project is to help job seekers with families when a move is necessary. Inclusive programs are also planned.

The CDU wants to pay civil servants adequately and prevent the lowest pay grades from being close to the level of basic welfare benefits. Bonuses for unfavorable working hours and strenuous duties are to rise. This is meant to keep the state attractive as an employer.

The CDU wants to pay civil servants fairly. Even those with low pay should earn clearly more than basic welfare. People who work at night or on weekends should get higher bonuses. All state employees should be able to lease a bike.

Adjustments to pay and pensions are to match economic development, taking the states' collective wage agreements into account. Training and continuing education for administrative staff are to be expanded. For all state employees, the CDU wants to enable company bike leasing and participation in fitness programs such as Hansefit. The legal basis for this is to be created where needed.

The CDU regards inclusion as a human right and wants to give people with disabilities more participation in housing, culture, health care, and working life. It plans funding programs for accessible housing and more support for sheltered workshops.

People with disabilities should be able to take part everywhere. The CDU wants to fund more homes without barriers. Doctors' offices and hospitals should also be easier to enter. Workshops for people with disabilities should get more money. Moving into a regular job should become easier.

Funding programs are to create affordable, accessible homes for different groups, such as older people with impairments or people with severe multiple disabilities. Hospitals, medical practices, therapy facilities, and pharmacies are to become more accessible, and medical centers for adults with intellectual disabilities are to be expanded. Early support in day care is to improve through flexible use of specialists. Sheltered workshops get more funding, and the move into the regular labor market is to be eased together with the federal government. Municipalities and investors are to receive money for inclusive neighborhoods.

The CDU wants to support people who have fallen into hardship through illness, economic trouble, or family crises. It plans help for homeless people, more support for food banks, and expanded debt and psychosocial counseling.

Some people lose their home or have large debts. The CDU wants to help them. Towns and cities should get support to help homeless people. Food banks should get more support. There should be more counseling for debt and mental health problems.

According to the program, the COVID-19 pandemic made mental health problems, debt, and homelessness worse. Funding is planned for new care services for mental illness, hygiene centers, and recovery apartments where sick homeless people can rest. Debt counseling is aimed especially at self-employed people and families who ran into money trouble because of the pandemic. A special program is to fund addiction, debt, and housing counseling that is not tied to one location.

The CDU wants older people to be able to live independently in their neighborhoods for a long time. Age-appropriate housing, barrier-free renovations and support services are to be funded. An action plan against loneliness is also planned.

Old people should be able to stay in their neighborhood for a long time. The CDU wants to support fitting housing. Old houses should be rebuilt without barriers. There should be a plan against loneliness.

The program names housing forms for older people and for several generations, as well as support for multigenerational houses. Renovating older houses to be senior-friendly and barrier-free is to be funded, along with outpatient and inpatient support services. Upper age limits for civic engagement are to be dropped. Public offices are to offer consultation hours for seniors with a medical focus. The action plan against loneliness is meant to give ideas to civil society, companies, institutions and the administration.