CDU on work and social affairs

The CDU wants as many businesses as possible to be covered by collective agreements and considers strong works councils and staff councils indispensable. In the platform's view, collective bargaining coverage ensures fair competition, peace in the workplace and good working conditions.

The CDU wants many companies to pay by collective agreement. That is a contract on pay and working hours. Works councils should be strong. No one may block the election of a works council.

The platform describes North Rhine-Westphalia as the state of social partnership and relies on strong unions and employer associations. Works council elections must not be obstructed. Changes in companies are to be shaped together with employees, drawing on lessons from the 'Projekt Arbeit 2020' initiative. Industrial jobs in future-oriented sectors are also to be created.

The CDU wants to bring as many long-term unemployed people as possible into regular employment. Young people without work in particular are to find their way into working life by catching up on qualifications.

Some people have been out of work for years. The CDU wants to help them get a regular job. Young people above all should be able to catch up on qualifications. Simple programs should give them a steady daily routine.

To reduce long-term unemployment structurally, the CDU wants to look more closely at entire Bedarfsgemeinschaften, meaning households that jointly receive basic income support. Existing projects are to be developed further. Low-threshold programs are meant to give young long-term unemployed people a daily routine and ease them into an activity.

The CDU wants to strengthen the state's occupational safety administration and have five percent of businesses inspected each year. Inspections are to focus on places with precarious employment. In the platform's view, exploitative working arrangements have no place in society.

The state should inspect companies more often. Each year, five out of a hundred companies should be checked. Inspectors should look mostly at insecure jobs. Workers should also get more advice.

The Beratungsstellen Arbeit (labor counseling centers) are to be expanded so that employees can better assert their interests against companies. The safety administration is to be well equipped in staff and technology and keep its decentralized structure. The platform points out that targeted inspections in the meat industry, mail-order retail and on construction sites uncovered deficiencies and that the administration has grown by 100 positions.

The CDU wants to give people with disabilities more opportunities to participate, above all through training and work in the regular labor market. Inclusion companies are to receive more funding, and the state civil service is to lead by example in hiring.

People with disabilities should be able to take part everywhere. The CDU wants to get them more regular jobs. The state itself should hire more of them. More of them should be able to live on their own.

Five percent of new hires in the state civil service are to continue going to people with disabilities. Funding for the more than 300 inclusion companies is to grow. The inclusion advisory council is to be involved in the 'NRWinklusiv' action plan, and the recommendations of an expert commission on protection from violence in disability care facilities are to be implemented. Also planned are better-tailored housing options, stronger foster families and inclusive vacation care for children and young people that covers as much of the state as possible.

The CDU wants to reduce homelessness and child poverty and continue state programs for that purpose. Regarding the federal government's planned Bürgergeld (citizen's income), it wants to insist that support remains tied to recipients' cooperation. At the same time, standard benefit rates are to be adjusted to the higher cost of living.

The CDU wants to help people without a home. Poor children should also get more help. People who get money from the state should still have to do their part. The money should go up because food and energy cost more.

The state initiative 'Endlich ein ZUHAUSE!' is to continue, and the so-called Kümmerer projects (caseworkers who help people find housing) are to be expanded in all counties and independent cities. The 'Zusammen im Quartier' program for disadvantaged children, young people and families is to carry on with more than eight million euros and over 100 projects. At the federal level, the CDU wants higher standard rates that reflect prices for items such as food and energy.

The CDU wants to reduce child poverty mainly by getting unemployed parents into jobs. It plans an agenda titled "No Child in Poverty – For Parents in Work." In the platform's view, children are poor when their parents have no work.

The CDU says children are poor when their parents have no job. So it wants to get parents into work. It wants to reach out to these parents and support them. It will pay special attention to single parents. The same goes for children with disabilities.

The agenda is meant to reach jobless parents directly, support them and build the networks needed for that. The aim is an easier entry into employment, new opportunities and upward mobility. The platform argues that parents having a job and a regular daily routine serves the child's well-being. Single parents and children with disabilities are to receive particular attention.