Linke on work and social affairs

The Left demands a statutory minimum wage of 15 euros and justifies this with higher prices. In the platform's view, this would prevent old-age poverty and comply with the EU minimum wage directive.

The Left wants to raise the minimum wage to 15 euros an hour. The reason is that prices have gone up. The party says this keeps people from being poor when they are old. It says an EU rule also supports this.

The platform sees well-paid work as the best remedy for poverty. It rejects the claim that higher wages are responsible for rising prices and notes that current collective agreements do not prevent real wages from falling. The minimum wage is to rise to 15 euros. The party cites the European minimum wage directive and protection against poverty in old age. It regards the minimum wage as only a floor.

The Left wants a new procurement law under which the state only hires firms that pay collectively agreed wages and meet social and ecological standards. More collective agreements are also to be declared generally binding. The aim is higher collective bargaining coverage in Saxony, whose weakness the platform cites as a reason for low pay.

The state should only give contracts to companies that pay union-agreed wages. These are wages that unions and employers have negotiated. More wage agreements should apply to all companies in a sector. Companies owned by the state should also pay these wages.

The party notes that it has introduced procurement bills in every legislative term since 2006. Regional origin and ecological criteria are to count in awarding contracts, and small and medium-sized firms are to be invited to bid. Business associations are asked to push back memberships without collective agreement coverage. Collective agreements are to be declared generally binding more often, including in the skilled trades. All companies at least half owned by the Free State are to be covered by collective agreements; according to the platform, about half of state-owned companies currently are not.

The Left wants to end fixed-term contracts without objective reason and turn mini-jobs into regular positions with social insurance. It adds a maximum working week of 40 hours, five days of educational leave a year and home office where feasible. The party sets this against calls for longer working hours.

The Left wants to ban temporary contracts that have no reason. Mini-jobs should become normal jobs with social insurance. Nobody should have to work more than 40 hours a week. Workers should get 5 days off a year for education.

In the party's view, fixed-term contracts and unequal treatment weaken employees' ability to plan their lives and stand up for their interests. Solo self-employed and platform workers are to receive pay appropriate to their sector. The statutory maximum working time is to be 40 hours a week, and working hours are to adapt to phases of life. The platform calls for a right to five days of educational leave each year as well as home office rules. Occupational health and safety is to be regulated in employees' favor, supplemented by workplace health management.

The Left wants to abolish Bürgergeld (citizen's income) and replace it with a minimum income without sanctions, set according to the at-risk-of-poverty threshold. Nobody should have to live on less than 1,200 euros a month. The party argues that fear of social decline weakens employees' bargaining position.

The Left wants to replace Bürgergeld, the basic welfare payment. There should be a minimum income without penalties. Every person should have at least 1,200 euros a month. Poor retirees should also be allowed to keep 15,000 euros in savings.

The new benefit would work without sanctions and its amount would follow the at-risk-of-poverty threshold. The platform names 1,200 euros a month as the floor. In the long term the party also considers an unconditional basic income a possible solution, provided it is well funded and socially oriented. People receiving basic support because of age or reduced earning capacity are to keep protected assets of 15,000 euros, like Bürgergeld recipients. This is meant to allow reserves for unexpected expenses.

The Left wants to open the way into the regular labor market for people with disabilities. Sheltered workshops are to be reformed and pay at least the statutory minimum wage; through the Bundesrat, Saxony is to push for full employee status for workshop workers. Public contracts are to be linked to inclusion.

People with disabilities should find regular work more easily. In sheltered workshops they should get at least the minimum wage. They should have the same rights as other workers. A new office and a job board should help with the search.

Inclusion companies are to receive lasting funding so that inclusive jobs are secure. In Saxony's procurement law, employing people with disabilities and chronic illnesses is to become a criterion. A placement office for work and training and a statewide inclusive job board are planned. Workshops are to open up to the general labor market and become places of vocational training. External workplaces are to lead primarily to employment with social insurance, and the federal workshop regulation is to be modernized.

The Left wants to give workers in sheltered workshops for people with disabilities more say and to check more strictly whether the workshops place people in the regular labor market. Companies that do not hire people with disabilities would pay a higher Ausgleichsabgabe (compensation levy).

Some people with disabilities work in special workshops. The Left wants to give them more say there. Companies with no disabled workers should pay more money. This payment is called the compensation levy.

Pay in the workshops should not fall below the minimum wage. Checks on whether workshops prepare their workers for the regular labor market and place them there are to be stepped up considerably. Workers would get a say, through committees, on working hours, breaks and the type of work, and in residential homes on leisure activities as well. In public procurement, the Left wants to give more weight to companies that employ people with disabilities.

The Left wants to ease the labor shortage by giving more people access to work: immigrants, women, people with disabilities and the unemployed. To that end, job centers would employ trained social workers.

The Left wants to bring more people into work. Immigrants should be allowed to work in their own profession sooner. Women should be able to work as much as they want. Unemployed people should get more help with training and returning to work.

Immigrants should be allowed more quickly to work in a job that matches their qualifications. Companies and public authorities should adapt to the needs of people with disabilities. As a first step, the Left wants Saxony to employ social workers in the holistic support services under SGB II (the social code on basic income support) and in programs for hard-to-reach young people. Statewide programs would draw attention to the stigma attached to people receiving Bürgergeld (citizen's income), and research into the causes of unemployment would be expanded.

The Left supports nationwide sector-level collective agreements in the skilled trades and wants more agreements to be declared generally binding. This is meant to align working and living conditions across Germany and keep the trades attractive.

A collective agreement sets pay and hours for many businesses. In the skilled trades it often applies only to guild members. The Left wants agreements that apply to every business in a sector. This should raise pay in the trades.

Pay agreements in the skilled trades are usually negotiated between guilds and unions and bind only guild members. The program describes the result as a nationwide patchwork. It says collective bargaining coverage in Saxony is below average and even lower in the trades, which in the Left's view leads to lower wages and pensions.

The Left calls for amending the Works Constitution Act so that workforces have a vote on their company's major investments. In its view, the transformation of industry should serve employees' interests, and employees should also become co-owners of their companies.

Today companies decide alone how to spend their money. The Left wants to change that. Workers should have a vote on large spending decisions. They should also be able to own part of their company.

The program points out that many investments are pending that will set the course of companies for decades. In the Left's view, large corporations in particular use the transformation to save money at their employees' expense. The changes brought by climate protection and digitalization should strengthen social security and not widen inequality.

The Left expects economic change to alter the demand for skilled workers and to require rapid retraining of large parts of the workforce. It wants scholarships for shortage occupations and for training that employees choose themselves, plus financial help from the Federal Employment Agency for small and medium-sized businesses.

The economy is changing. Many workers need to learn new things. The Left wants to award scholarships for this. A scholarship is money for training. Small businesses should get money from the employment agency for training their staff.

The program asks Saxony's companies to plan their staffing ahead of time. In all industrial strategies, the state should take staffing needs into account so that the many small businesses are not left on their own. Scholarships would also go to employees who start training or further education on their own initiative.

The Left wants to strengthen municipal social policy with higher state subsidies, a network of social counseling centers and permanently guaranteed budgets for defined social areas. In rural areas, shops and other facilities should be subsidized if they take on tasks for the common good.

The Left wants advice centers for social benefits everywhere. People get help with applications there. Towns and districts should get fixed money for social tasks. Village shops should also get money from the state.

The state should give more money for municipal employment programs and social projects. Municipalities, welfare associations and civic initiatives should jointly develop local strategies against poverty. Responsibility should be pooled in defined social areas; the elected bodies of districts, municipalities and independent cities decide on the budgets, which are distributed through municipal fiscal equalization. Village shops should receive support if they sell regional products, provide rooms as meeting places or help with dealings with the authorities.

The Left wants to modernize Saxony's Landesblindengeldgesetz (state blindness allowance act) and raise benefits for blind, visually impaired, deafblind and deaf people as well as severely disabled children. The amounts are to rise each year with inflation plus one percentage point.

Blind and deaf people get money from the state. The Left wants to raise these amounts. Blind people should get 600 euros a month. The money should rise every year with prices. More people with severe hearing loss should qualify.

The plan foresees 600 euros a month in blindness allowance, 250 euros for visually impaired people, 1,000 euros for deafblind people, 600 euros for deaf people and 200 euros for severely disabled children. People who are deaf or nearly deaf are to qualify from a disability degree of 70. The party calls for a uniform 7 percent VAT rate on all assistive devices. Deafblind people are to be granted 20 hours of assistance per week, and self-help associations are also to receive funding for volunteer assistance. In addition, all people with disabilities are to be exempt from the broadcasting fee.

The Left wants to establish a statutory right to free debt counseling, with the length of counseling based on need. It also wants to expand consumer protection, including food inspections, access to cash and independent advice services.

The Left wants free advice for people in debt. Everyone should have a right to it. The advice should last as long as needed. Food should also be checked more closely. Savings banks should offer cash everywhere.

Municipalities would receive considerably more money for debt counseling, and debt counseling would be linked more closely with consumer insolvency counseling. For food inspections, the party wants more staff at the state testing agency (Landesuntersuchungsanstalt) and interdisciplinary inspection units, with results published in an understandable form. Savings banks should keep branches across the state that offer cash and in-person services, which the platform treats as a basic service. The platform also calls for more independent energy advice, more consumer education and a neutral advice service for patients and people needing care.

The Left wants to make vocational training more attractive, mainly through minimum pay of 80 percent of the collectively agreed wage. It also calls for ending school fees, a free Deutschlandticket and further relief for apprentices.

Apprentices should get more money. The Left wants at least 80 percent of the union wage. School fees should end. The Deutschlandticket should be free for apprentices. There should be enough dorm places.

The dual system of vocational training is to remain the norm in Saxony. Pay should be high enough for apprentices to live without help from their parents; the platform speaks of basic support independent of parents. All school fees in the state would be abolished. Because of long trips to vocational school, the Left calls for a free Deutschlandticket, enough dorm places for statewide specialist classes and a free shuttle between workplace and home.