FDP on work and social affairs

The FDP wants to replace the daily maximum working time with a weekly one and simplify labor law. It rejects a statutory four-day week at full pay and political interference in the Minimum Wage Commission.

Today there is a limit on working time per day. The FDP wants a limit per week instead. People should be able to plan their work more freely. The FDP rejects a law for a four-day week.

Opt-out clauses on rest periods would be used. Minimum wage documentation duties would be simplified, and digital employment contracts allowed in every sector. Health insurers would forward electronic sick notes directly to employers; the special rules on sick notes by phone from the COVID period would end. Posting workers within the EU, including the A1 certificate, would become simpler and more digital.

The FDP wants to put the self-employed on an equal footing with employees and reform the procedure that determines whether someone is self-employed or an employee. The self-employed would be free to choose how they save for retirement.

The FDP wants fairer treatment for self-employed people. Their health insurance payments should depend on their real income. There should be clear rules on who counts as self-employed. They should choose their retirement savings freely.

Statutory health insurance contributions would be based on actual earnings. The law would set out clear criteria for determining employment status. If work is later found to be dependent employment, contributions could not be charged retroactively unless there was intent or gross negligence. Subsidized private retirement plans would be open to everyone in work.

The FDP wants new rules for strikes in critical sectors. In its view, strikes there risk disproportionate harm to society, which distorts the bargaining power of the parties.

The FDP wants new rules for strikes. This applies to important areas like trains, hospitals and daycare. Strikes there must be announced early. An emergency service must keep running.

The program lists transport, health and social care, daycare centers, energy, fire and civil protection, and waste disposal as critical sectors. There, the bargaining parties would have to agree on binding arbitration at the start of negotiations. Minimum notice periods and a guaranteed emergency service would be added. The FDP also calls the right to strike an important fundamental right.

The FDP wants to fundamentally restructure Bürgergeld (citizen's income) and gear it more toward taking up work. The unemployed would have to prove their own efforts, sanctions would be tougher and the standard rate lower. The program cites work incentives and fairness to taxpayers.

The FDP wants to change Bürgergeld a lot. Bürgergeld is the basic benefit for people without work. Jobless people should prove that they are looking for work. Those who make no effort get less money step by step. The standard rate should go down.

An intensive phase with especially frequent job center contact would apply in the first twelve months. Longer commutes and relocation would be considered reasonable for people without children or relatives needing care. Work assignments would be introduced for people the program calls total refusers. The rule protecting current benefit levels would be scrapped so the standard rate, which the FDP says exceeds need in 2025, can fall. Job centers would get better means to check car ownership, bank accounts and assets abroad, and act harder against undeclared work by benefit recipients.

The FDP wants to merge tax-funded benefits such as Bürgergeld (citizen's income) and housing benefit into a single payment handled by one agency. The tax and welfare systems would be aligned along the lines of a negative income tax so that extra work pays.

Today there are many different welfare benefits. The FDP wants to turn them into one single benefit. One office should be in charge. People who work more should keep more money.

The rules on extra earnings in basic income support and housing benefit would be changed so that working one's way out of benefits step by step pays off, rather than combining Bürgergeld with a mini-job. For housing, the merged benefit would include a regional flat rate instead of costly case-by-case checks of rent and heating. The FDP expects less administrative effort and fewer disincentives.

The FDP wants to let employees pay lower unemployment insurance contributions in exchange for a lower unemployment benefit. It cites the shrinking risk of long-term unemployment amid labor shortages and greater personal responsibility.

Employees pay into unemployment insurance. The FDP wants to allow a choice. Those who pay in less get less unemployment benefit later. In return, more of their wages is left over.

The employer's share saved through this choice would be paid out to the employee as net pay. The option must not result in insured people having to rely on state welfare payments.

The FDP wants to prevent social security contributions from rising ever further above 40 percent. Future governments would be obliged to take countermeasures. In the party's view, high contributions burden workers and businesses and hold back new jobs.

The FDP wants to limit social security contributions. These are payments for pensions, health care and long-term care. They should not keep rising above 40 percent. The government would then have to act.

The platform bases the demand on demographic change, which it says puts the social insurance funds under pressure. Rising contributions are not a solution, it argues, because they make work less attractive and leave young people less room to save on their own. Future federal governments would be bound to concrete steps. The FDP also calls for much more funded financing in pension and long-term care insurance.