Grüne on work and social affairs

The Greens want to counter the shortage of skilled workers with a drive for employment and training. They also want work in Lower Saxony to be paid fairly.

Lower Saxony does not have enough skilled workers. The Greens want to bring more people into work. They also want more training. And work should be paid fairly.

The platform attributes the shortage of skilled workers to demographic change. In response it announces a drive that combines employment and training. According to the platform, a skilled-worker drive is also part of the goal of leading in jobs related to wind, solar, heat pumps and energy efficiency. The party also wants to ensure fair pay.

The Greens want more trade businesses to pay according to collective agreements so that trained workers stay in their profession. They also want to reform maternity protection for self-employed women in order to strengthen women in the trades.

Many tradespeople later move to other jobs. The platform says low pay is one reason. So the Greens want more collectively agreed wages in the trades. These are wages that unions and employers set together. Self-employed women should also get better maternity protection.

According to the platform, around two thirds of people trained in the trades later leave the sector, mainly because pay is lower than in industry. The Greens point out that public contracts in Lower Saxony are already tied to compliance with collective agreements. Beyond that, collective bargaining coverage in the trades is to be strengthened. For self-employed women, the party calls for a reform of maternity protection and swift implementation of EU Directive 2010/41.

The Greens want to accompany the ecological and social restructuring of the economy so that it is socially fair. An impact assessment, ongoing monitoring and advice for employees and works councils are meant to serve this. The party also wants to end discrimination in the labor market and the evasion of social insurance obligations.

The economy is changing because of climate protection. Some jobs disappear and new ones appear. The Greens want to watch this change closely. They want to advise and protect workers. Nobody should be treated unfairly at work.

The monitoring is to produce regular proposals for making the restructuring more socially fair. Advisory services are to be created for innovation and transfer processes in companies, supporting employees and co-determination bodies. The Greens want to work toward companies setting up transformation committees and concluding collective agreements on shaping the change. The platform notes that people with a migration background are more often poorly paid, in precarious jobs or unemployed. The party sees automation as a chance for more flexible working hours and more self-directed work.

The Greens are aiming for a continuing education law. Employees are to be released from work for training, be paid appropriately during that time and be entitled to return to their job afterward. The platform justifies this with rapidly changing skill requirements during structural change.

The Greens want a law on job training. Workers should get time off for courses. They keep getting paid during this time. Afterward they may return to their job. This way everyone can keep learning at work.

According to the platform, just under half of companies currently offer training, reaching around 40 percent of employees subject to social insurance. All employees are to be able to expand their knowledge regularly and benefit from digitalization. Advice for low-skilled employees and for small and mid-sized businesses in particular is to be expanded.

The Greens want a more active state labor market policy. They plan a public employment sector, a state program against long-term unemployment and secure funding for independent advice for the unemployed. The platform points to more than 200,000 unemployed people alongside staff shortages in many fields.

More than 200,000 people in Lower Saxony have no job. The Greens want to help them more. The state should create jobs with fair conditions itself. People without work should get good advice. This advice should not come from the job center.

A state program is to accompany long-term unemployed people on their way into work. When nonprofit organizations and municipalities hire long-term unemployed people, the state is to cover their share of wage costs required under the Teilhabechancengesetz (federal law on subsidized jobs). Independent social counseling in centers for the unemployed is to be funded permanently because, in the party's view, existing initiatives are underfunded and missing in many places.

The Greens want to reduce poverty in the state together with unions, associations, civic initiatives and municipalities. They plan free counseling for tenants, people in debt and those in consumer insolvency, and easier participation for people with little money. The platform names a basic income as a long-term prospect and supports research on it.

The Greens want fewer people to be poor. People with debts or rent problems should get free advice. The Greens are also thinking about a basic income. That is money every person gets from the state. Researchers should check whether this works.

The platform notes that tax policy and replacing Hartz IV (the basic welfare system) are federal matters. At the state level, the party wants to shrink the low-wage sector, support unemployed and disadvantaged people entering work, and create prospects especially for young people. Field research is to examine how a basic income works and whether it can be financed; evaluating a pilot project in Lower Saxony can contribute to this. The aim is social, cultural and political participation without fear for one's livelihood.

The Greens are aiming for a labor market in which people with and without disabilities work together. State agencies are to hire more severely disabled people, the compensatory levy is to rise and sheltered workshops are to become easier to leave. In the long run there is to be a right to a job in inclusive companies.

People with and without disabilities should work together. State offices should hire more people with disabilities. Companies that hire too few should pay more. Moving from a sheltered workshop to a regular company should get easier.

In public contracts, more weight is to be given to whether a company meets the legal quota for employing severely disabled people. At the same time, barriers are to be lowered for businesses that hire people with disabilities, and conditions for inclusion companies are to improve. Counseling and support for entering working life are to be strengthened. Those who stay in a workshop are to be supported in getting good working conditions and fair wages. Workshop councils are to gain more legal co-determination powers.

The Greens want more employees in Lower Saxony to be paid under collective agreements and the low-wage sector to shrink. Public contracts and business subsidies are to be tied by law to collectively agreed pay, a procurement minimum wage, and environmental and social standards. The platform justifies this with better wages and higher public revenue.

The Greens want more people to be paid under union wage agreements. Such an agreement sets pay and hours for many companies. The state should only give contracts to companies that pay these wages. The companies must also follow rules for the environment and for workers. Small companies should be able to bid more easily.

The party wants to push for making it easier to declare collective agreements generally binding. The procurement minimum wage is to be at least as high as in Berlin and Brandenburg, and compliance is to be checked. According to the platform, employees covered by collective agreements in Lower Saxony earn almost 4,000 euros more per year, and avoidance of such agreements costs the state's municipalities 443 million euros in tax revenue. Red tape in procurement is to be reduced so more small and mid-sized companies can take part. A public governance code covering sustainability and social justice is planned for companies in which the state holds a stake.

The Greens want stricter checks on standards for good work and penalties for violations. Trade inspection offices are to get more staff and clear responsibilities so they can inspect at least five percent of businesses a year by 2026. The platform points to an inspection rate of 0.6 percent in 2020.

Companies must follow rules that protect workers. So far the state rarely checks this. The Greens want many more inspections. The offices should get more staff for this. Inspections should also come without warning.

The platform cites too few staff as the reason for the low number of inspections, saying the state falls short of demands by the International Labour Organization. Within ten years, every business in Lower Saxony is to be inspected at least once. The party points to abuses in the meat industry that became visible during the pandemic and wants more unannounced inspections. The counseling center for mobile workers in the meat and logistics industries is to keep receiving funding.

The Greens want to give unions and works councils stronger backing. Obstruction of workplace co-determination is to be prosecuted quickly and competently, with police and judicial authorities building up the necessary expertise.

The Greens want to support works councils. A works council speaks for the workers in a company. Some companies block works councils. Police and courts should deal with such cases faster. They should get more expert knowledge for this.

The platform points out that many workplaces in Lower Saxony have no works council. The Greens welcome the federal government's plan to classify obstruction of co-determination as an offense prosecuted ex officio, meaning without a complaint from the victim. At the state level, police and legal authorities are to build up expertise so that such offenses are handled quickly.

The Greens want to establish an entitlement to free debt counseling that is open to everyone. Debt and insolvency counseling centers in Lower Saxony are to receive reliable funding.

Some people have more debt than they can pay. The Greens want to help them. Everyone should have a right to free advice. The advice centers should get secure funding.

The platform names low wages, basic income support that the party considers too low, and sudden life changes as causes of personal over-indebtedness. People in this situation need support, it says. Access to counseling is to be open to all who seek it, and the state's debt and insolvency counseling centers are to be put on a stable financial footing.

The Greens want to reduce homelessness significantly through a state program. It would fund Housing First projects, in which homeless people first get an apartment along with social support. Specialized offices are to prevent people from losing their homes in the first place.

The Greens want fewer people to live on the street. A state program should help. Homeless people should get a home first. After that they get help with other problems. Advice offices should help before someone loses their home.

According to the platform, more than ten thousand people in Lower Saxony are homeless. The municipal network of offices that help secure housing would be expanded. The state program would also improve shelters, social support, and long-term assistance for tenants. A special program within social housing subsidies would create homes for groups with particular needs, and the purchase of occupancy rights would be supported. The state and municipalities would cover landlords' financial risks. Separate services are planned for homeless women and for migrants and refugees.

The Greens want to tackle the shortage of daycare staff with better pay, a training wage that prevents poverty, and programs for career changers and returners. The party rejects lowering training standards.

Daycare centers lack trained staff. The Greens want to pay them better. Trainees should also earn enough to live on. People from other jobs should be able to switch to daycare more easily. But the training should not get worse.

Programs for returning to the job and for retraining are planned, along with stronger on-the-job training. Foreign vocational qualifications are to be recognized more easily. The party rejects shortened training, which the platform calls "training light." Daycare directors are to get better conditions, more non-contact hours and further training. Gender-sensitive career guidance in schools is meant to attract more men to social professions, and career paths are to be shown for older staff.

The Greens advocate a Bundesteilhabegeld (federal participation allowance) to offset disadvantages caused by a disability. Until this is bindingly regulated, the party wants to keep and further develop the Landesblindengesetz (state law on benefits for blind people).

People with disabilities should get money from the federal government. It is called Bundesteilhabegeld. It should make up for disadvantages caused by the disability. Until then, the state law for blind people stays. The Greens want to improve this law.

The Bundesteilhabegeld would be a benefit at the federal level. The platform sees the Landesblindengesetz as compensation for disadvantages that allows better living conditions and more participation. In developing it further, gaps in the law's scope are to be closed.

The Greens want to improve working conditions at universities and create permanent positions for permanent tasks. University funding is to be restructured for this purpose, and the federal law on fixed-term academic contracts is to be reformed.

Many people at universities only have short-term contracts. The Greens want more permanent jobs. The state should fund universities differently for this. A federal law should change too.

University funding is to be tied to concrete targets for converting fixed-term jobs into permanent ones. New, more family-friendly career paths should give mid-level academic staff better prospects. Through the Bundesrat, the Greens want to push for reform of the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz (the law on fixed-term academic contracts) to prevent abuse of temporary contracts. Student assistants should get workplace representation and a collective agreement, through a statewide solution if necessary.

The Greens want to overcome child poverty and secure participation for all children. At the state level they plan dedicated social reporting on children, more money for social facilities and more help for municipalities. They welcome the federal Kindergrundsicherung (basic child allowance).

Many children in Lower Saxony are poor. The Greens want to change that. They want to give more money to youth centers and social services. Towns and cities should get more help.

The platform's starting point is that almost one in four children in the state lives in poverty. Plans include support for neighborhood work and community initiatives, more funding for youth centers especially in rural areas, and more all-day school programs. Municipalities are to be supported in building prevention chains. In these, actors from education, health, culture and sports coordinate and support children through every stage of growing up.

The Greens want to introduce a statewide Niedersachsenpass (Lower Saxony pass) for people who receive social benefits or have low incomes. It is meant to ease access to culture, sports and local transit and to bundle discounts.

The Greens want to introduce a Lower Saxony pass. People with little money get the pass. It makes it easier to visit museums or join a sports club. Buses and trains should also be cheaper for them.

The pass is meant to make visits to museums and cultural venues and active membership in sports clubs easier across the state. It includes discounts on electricity prices and other social tariffs, plus entitlement to a reduced-price statewide local transit ticket. For children and young people it is to help with the cost of lunches, learning materials, language support, music, sports and class trips. Where it makes sense, it is to simplify access to benefits under the federal education and participation package.

The Greens want to improve conditions for migrant workers, for example in slaughterhouses, care, logistics, construction and agriculture. Minimum standards are to be defined, inspections expanded and advice centers permanently funded.

Many people from abroad work in slaughterhouses, in care or in construction. The Greens say their conditions are often bad. There should be fixed minimum rules and more inspections. Advice centers should help them in their own language.

The program describes these workers as essential. Organized human trafficking is to be fought systematically by legal means. Advice centers that inform and support mobile workers on labor law in their native languages are to be expanded statewide. The Greens see the supposedly temporary nature of labor migration as a structural problem because, in their view, it leads to lasting insecurity, isolation and a lack of participation.