Grüne on work and social affairs

The Greens want employees to choose more freely what full-time means for them, between 30 and 40 hours a week. They also want to promote the four-day week and create a right to paid caregiving leave so that work, family, care and volunteering fit together better.

The Greens want more flexible working hours. Workers should be able to choose between 30 and 40 hours a week. People who care for relatives should get paid during that time. This leaves more time for family and volunteering.

Besides reliable childcare, the platform calls for flexible full-time work and support for models such as the four-day week. At the federal level, the party backs a right to caregiving leave with wage replacement. The state would launch a program on combining work and caregiving, which is also meant to help secure skilled workers. Decentralized co-working spaces would be funded to support remote work.

The Greens want to bring more people into work who currently have weaker chances on the labor market, and to expand existing state programs for that purpose. In the public sector, they want a modernized civil service law and a flat-rate health subsidy for civil servants.

There are not enough skilled workers. The Greens want to bring more people into jobs. Programs for jobless people and for women should grow. Civil servants should be freer to choose their health insurance.

The platform names women, people with a migration background, the long-term unemployed, people with disabilities, older people and young people without a degree as untapped potential. Programs such as Jobfux, youth employment agencies and “Frauen aktiv in die Zukunft” are to be expanded. Long-term unemployed people with disabilities would be placed with intensive personal support. Civil service law is to make promotion, family-friendly conditions, flexible hours and lateral entry easier. The flat-rate Beihilfe is a subsidy that lets civil servants opt for statutory health insurance.

The Greens want a fundamental reform of the state's Landestariftreuegesetz (collective-wage compliance law) so that public contracts go only to companies that honor collective agreements. Workplace safety is also to be expanded with more inspection staff.

The state gives many contracts to companies. The Greens want this: only companies that pay agreed union wages get contracts. There should also be more checks for safe workplaces.

Procurement rules would be amended to include social and environmental criteria. Companies that train apprentices, employ severely disabled or long-term unemployed people and promote gender equality could be rewarded in tenders. The platform justifies this with the state's market power and better working conditions under collective agreements. On workplace safety, it plans more inspection staff, health prevention in dialogue with employee representatives and more counseling for posted workers.

The Greens want to support people in poverty with more counseling, municipal social passes and a statewide subsidized transit ticket for benefit recipients. The platform rejects sanctions, which in its view exclude people from society.

The Greens want to help poor people. There should be more advice for people with debts. Poor people should get a cheap ticket for buses and trains. People without health insurance should also get help.

Debt counseling is to be secured and expanded, and the clearing offices that help uninsured people regain health coverage would get another location in Trier. In the long run, an emergency fund is sought for uninsured people in urgent medical need, modeled on existing support for pregnant women. Social service offices in counties and cities would bundle all benefits and actively inform people of their entitlements; local social work is to grow. The social ticket should cost no more than the standard benefit amount set aside for mobility. Federally, the party backs a basic child allowance and a climate bonus, and it plans a campaign on protecting women financially against old-age poverty.

The Greens want to expand programs against loneliness for older people and build new ones for young people. The platform sees loneliness as a risk to health, social cohesion and trust in democracy.

Many people feel lonely. That can make them sick. The Greens want more projects for old and young people. There should be more places to meet, also in the countryside.

Municipalities would receive funding for neighborhood and urban development that takes loneliness into account, for example through multigenerational houses. Meeting places such as youth centers are to be expanded, especially in rural areas. The platform names young adults, older people, single parents, queer people and those at risk of poverty among the most affected. Research into the causes of loneliness and the effectiveness of countermeasures would also be funded.

The Greens want more people with disabilities employed in the regular labor market and in the state civil service. Work in sheltered workshops should be the exception and be better paid.

People with disabilities should find regular jobs more easily. The state itself should hire more of them. In sheltered workshops they should earn more money. Companies only get state contracts if they employ enough people with disabilities.

For the state civil service, the goal is an employment rate of six percent, backed by additional positions, binding targets for ministries, a central pool of positions and the state's own inclusion enterprises. Pilot projects would test a living wage that is not offset against benefits, wherever a person works. The enhanced pension contributions that apply in workshops would also apply to inclusive jobs in the regular labor market. Jobs in inclusion companies are to rise by at least 25 percent. State contracts would be tied to meeting the quota for severely disabled employees, and binding agreements on transitions are planned with the workshops.

The Greens want to continue and expand the "Housing First" approach in Rhineland-Palatinate. Under it, homeless people first get a home of their own and then further support. Drop-in cafés are to be funded as well.

Some people have no home. With "Housing First" they get a home first. After that they get more help. The Greens want to make this program bigger. They also want to fund cafés for homeless people.

According to the platform, the approach was introduced in the state during the last legislative term. The party considers it promising. In the drop-in cafés, homeless people should find advice, support and a safe place to retreat.