SPD on work and social affairs

The SPD wants to give the state's inspection authorities more staff and expand workplace safety inspections. Five percent of businesses are to be inspected each year. It also wants to examine whether to set up a contact point where workers can report violations of the law.

The SPD wants more inspections in workplaces. The inspections check whether work is safe. Each year, 5 out of 100 businesses should be checked. The authorities should get enough staff for this. There may also be an office where people can report violations.

According to the program, the expansion of inspections follows the Arbeitsschutzkontrollgesetz (Occupational Safety Inspection Act) of 2021. The state's own inspection authorities are to get enough staff to carry out all their tasks. Together with unions and the Arbeitnehmerkammer (Chamber of Employees), the SPD wants to clarify whether an easily accessible contact point makes sense. Possible violations could be reported there, including anonymously, so the authorities can follow up.

The SPD sees the public sector, as the state's largest employer, as bearing special responsibility. In the administration and state-owned companies, fixed-term contracts, temp work, mini-jobs, and involuntary part-time work are to be cut back. Job centers are also to place fewer people in temp work.

The state of Bremen is the biggest employer in Bremen. The SPD wants secure jobs there. There should be no more fixed-term contracts without a reason. The state should stop using mini-jobs. Temp work should only be used when there is a short peak in work.

Fixed-term contracts without an objective reason are to be dropped, and those with a reason are to be kept as rare as possible. Temp work is to be used solely to bridge peaks in demand, mini-jobs are to be dropped, and involuntary part-time work is to give way to suitable working hours. Personnel monitoring and analyses in the plans for the advancement of women are to show how many atypical jobs exist; binding reduction targets will be set with the employee representation bodies. The SPD wants agreements with the job centers to place fewer people in temp work and to encourage employers to combine mini-jobs into part-time jobs with social insurance.

The SPD wants to create jobs for people without vocational qualifications that pay enough to take part in society. To that end, Bremen's Landesmindestlohn (state minimum wage) is to stay in place. Publicly subsidized employment is to give a chance to people who cannot gain a foothold in the labor market.

Some people have no vocational qualification. The SPD wants enough jobs for them too. The pay should be enough to live on. So Bremen's own minimum wage should stay. The state should also support jobs for people who struggle to find work.

The program notes that there are people in Bremen without vocational qualifications and wants to push for enough jobs for them. The state minimum wage is named as a means to make sure pay is sufficient for participation. With publicly subsidized employment, the SPD wants to reach people who cannot find a place in the labor market. For social and cultural participation, the Freikarte (a free-access card for children and young people) is also to be continued.

The SPD wants to safeguard Bremen's Tariftreue-Gesetz (law requiring contractors to honor collective agreements) through ongoing checks so it is not circumvented. Collective agreements are also to be declared generally binding more often, meaning they apply to all businesses in a sector. Together with employers and unions, it wants to look for ways to do this at the federal level too.

In Bremen, companies that want state contracts must pay union-agreed wages. The SPD wants to keep checking this. Companies should not be able to get around the rule. Wage agreements should also apply to a whole industry more often. The SPD wants to push for this at the federal level too.

The law lets the state tie public tenders to companies being bound by a collective agreement. Continuous checks are meant to prevent the rule from being hollowed out, for example through subcontractors. Declaring collective agreements generally binding is to be used more widely; the program cites hotels and restaurants as an example. Especially where businesses are small and varied, the SPD sees this as a support for the partnership between employers and unions.

The SPD wants to write the Chamber of Employees, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Chamber of Crafts into Bremen's state constitution. The transformation of the economy is to be coordinated from the Rathaus (the mayor's office) and shaped jointly with unions and employers. The program sees a strong partnership between the two sides as a precondition for decent work.

Bremen has three chambers: for employees, for commerce, and for skilled trades. The SPD wants to write them into Bremen's constitution. The mayor's office should lead the change in the economy. Unions and employers should have a say in it.

The program regards the three chambers as indispensable to the state's economic and social order. The sector dialogues in retail, hospitality, and logistics are to continue. As a model for steering the transformation, the SPD cites the round table with employers and unions from the pandemic. The mayor's office and these partners are to accompany measures and strategies, work out timelines, make firm agreements, and set up monitoring. Worker participation and collective bargaining coverage are seen as the key.

The SPD wants to keep Bremen's €4,000 bonus for completing advanced vocational training. It would continue to cover not only master craftsperson certificates but also advanced training in fields such as childcare and nursing.

In Bremen, people get 4,000 euros when they finish advanced job training. The SPD wants to keep this. The money is not only for master craftspeople. People in nursing and childcare can get it too.

The bonus is €4,000 and would continue through the next legislative term. Besides master craftsperson certificates, advanced training in childcare and nursing would remain eligible. The program argues that this also supports career advancement in occupations where most workers are women.

The SPD wants to found a transition company that supports workers who have to switch industries or occupations. The program argues that jobs will be lost as the economy is restructured and that the standard support tools are not enough.

The economy is changing. Some people will have to change jobs. The SPD wants to set up a new organization for them. It gives advice and helps with the change. It also finds training courses for them.

The company would advise, accompany and support employees during the transition and connect them with further training. The program notes that Bremen's climate inquiry commission proposed such a body as well. The reason given is expected job losses during the transformation and the risk of unemployment.

Employees who go back to earn a vocational qualification would receive €200 a month as an expense allowance. The SPD argues that so far only employers are reimbursed, while the employees themselves bear the effort and extra costs.

Some workers go back to get a job qualification. The SPD wants to give them 200 euros a month. Today only the employer gets money. But the workers also have costs and hard work.

The plan builds on the 2019 Qualifizierungschancengesetz (Skills Opportunities Act), which lets low-skilled workers earn a qualification in a shortage occupation. Under it, the employment agency reimburses the employer for training costs and lost wages. Participants currently receive nothing. The new allowance would close that gap with €200 per month.

The SPD wants to test a right to further training in a state pilot program and create a Landes-BAföG (state training grant) for low-skilled workers. It is meant for people who want to move up to skilled-worker level independently of their employer and currently get no support.

The SPD wants to test a right to job training in Bremen. The state would pay a new training grant. It is for people without a job qualification. With it, they can become skilled workers.

The state grant would follow the rules of the federal law on funding advanced vocational training. Applicants must take part in training counseling, and no other standard funding may be available to them. The SPD also calls on the federal government to let the planned part-time training leave go ahead at the employee's own request, without needing the employer's consent.

The SPD wants to use a Bundesrat initiative to raise the national minimum pay for apprentices. If the federal government does not act, Bremen would introduce its own minimum apprentice pay at least equal to the maximum BAföG student aid rate.

Trainees should get more money. The SPD wants a higher minimum pay for trainees in all of Germany. If that does not happen, Bremen should act alone. Then trainees in Bremen get at least 861 euros a month.

The SPD says no one should have to give up vocational training for financial reasons. The state rule would be modeled on Bremen's state minimum wage. The program sets the floor at the maximum BAföG rate, currently €861 per month.

The SPD wants to keep the welcome bonus for apprentices and raise it to at least €300. It also plans a relocation grant, more apprentice dormitories and cheaper public transit tickets.

Trainees in Bremen get a welcome payment. The SPD wants to raise it to at least 300 euros. Trainees who move from far away should get money for the move. There should be more housing for trainees. Buses and trains should cost less for young people.

Applying for the welcome bonus would become simpler, and the SPD aims to extend it to students at vocational and secondary schools. Apprentices moving from farther away would get a relocation grant like the one for university students. Apprentice dormitories would be built in several neighborhoods according to need. The TIM ticket would be expanded, and the SPD wants to push for a discounted version of the nationwide €49 ticket for young people. Internships abroad through Erasmus+ would also be supported together with chambers, associations and unions.

The SPD wants job centers to counsel unemployed people more intensively toward a vocational qualification and expand suitable programs. Unskilled people who start qualification-oriented training when taking a job would get a state bonus of €200 a month.

Many jobless people in Bremen have no job qualification. The SPD wants job centers to advise them better. There should be more courses that lead to a qualification. People who do such training get 200 euros a month.

According to the program, more than two-thirds of the nearly 40,000 unemployed people in the state lack a vocational qualification, and most are served by the job centers. Bremen and Bremerhaven are to push in the governing board for more counseling, fewer hurdles and support during retraining. The qualification bonus applies to training under the Skills Opportunities Act that leads to a qualification in a shortage occupation. The SPD also wants to make qualification-oriented training possible within publicly subsidized employment.

The SPD wants to extend publicly subsidized jobs for the long-term unemployed beyond the current five-year maximum and create a state program for it. Projects would be located mainly in neighborhoods with many long-term unemployed residents.

Some people are out of work for a very long time. There are subsidized jobs for them, but only for five years. The SPD wants to make these jobs last longer. The state would start a new program for this. The jobs should be in the areas where these people live.

The program would be funded through the municipal passive-active transfer: savings on housing and heating benefits flow into longer support. Project revenues, labor market funds and additional state money would be added. The SPD wants to build on neighborhood centers, district projects and associations and revive the earlier “Regional Networks” concept. Less mobile groups such as single parents and older people would benefit most, with a bridge to retirement for the latter.

The SPD wants to expand municipal support services for unemployed people and make them easier to access, such as debt and addiction counseling, psychosocial support and childcare. Health promotion would be added as a new municipal service.

Jobless people often have other problems too. For example debt or addiction. The cities offer counseling for this. The SPD wants more of it. Help with health should be added as a new service.

The program notes that many unemployed people in the state depend on the job centers for an unusually long time. Municipalities are responsible for the social integration services under Book II of the Social Code. These are meant to help with problems that labor market tools cannot solve. Health promotion is not yet covered by federal law and would therefore be introduced by the municipalities themselves.

The SPD wants to bring counseling, language support and job placement directly into residential neighborhoods. It argues that many people rarely leave their neighborhood and are reluctant to visit public offices downtown.

Many people do not like going to offices downtown. So the SPD wants to offer advice in the neighborhood. Advisers should also go to the people. There should be more German courses close to home. Job placement should happen there too.

The youth employment agency would be regularly present in neighborhoods, do outreach work and employ more multilingual advisers to involve parents. Apprentices would get social work support and tutoring in basics such as math and language. For adults with little German, the SPD plans more language courses with childcare, language cafés and evening classes alongside work. As models for local job placement, the program cites the Bremerhaven projects “Die Mischung macht's” and “Infopunkt PERSPEKTIVEN.”

The SPD wants to tackle the skilled-labor shortage with training and continuing education in companies and calls this its highest priority. Vocational training and university study should be seen as equal in society. The platform cites the transformation of the economy and the retirement of the baby boomers as reasons.

Many companies cannot find enough skilled workers. So the SPD wants more training inside companies. Job training should count as much as a university degree. Companies, workers and politicians should work together on this.

The platform calls qualified staff a hard location factor, comparable to infrastructure or energy. Training is to be achieved jointly by companies, employee representatives and government, with chambers and academia also involved. It envisions exchange, for example in organized industry dialogues like the one in logistics.

The SPD wants to shape the changes that digitalization and automation bring to port work together with employers and unions. Training is meant to prevent a skills shortage, and where tasks disappear, workers should be able to move to other parts of the port. At EU level it calls for a fairness agreement among seaports.

Work in the port is changing because of computers and machines. The SPD wants workers to get training for this. People who lose their task should be able to work elsewhere in the port. In Europe, fair rules should apply to all ports.

The platform holds the port industry's players responsible for shaping the change, with a focus on initial and continuing training. A European fairness agreement ("level playing field") is meant to strengthen the competitiveness of Bremen's port industry and good working conditions. The SPD calls good work in the port a joint task of the public sector and private port companies.

The SPD wants to further develop employment conditions at universities in order to attract and retain researchers. Student assistants are to be employed under a collective bargaining agreement, and young researchers are to get reliable career paths.

The SPD wants better jobs at universities. Young researchers should be able to plan their careers. Work and family should fit together better. Students with a job at the university should get a collective agreement. A collective agreement sets pay and working hours for many workers.

The framework code for employment at Bremen's universities and the new staffing models for mid-level academic staff are to be developed further. Universities and research institutions should become more family-friendly. In supporting young researchers, the SPD wants to pay attention to equal opportunity and gender equality. Female professors who are heavily tied up in committee work in fields with few women are to get targeted relief. Together with the universities, measures are to be developed to recruit academic, technical, and administrative staff.

The SPD wants students to be paid in the future for mandatory internships in the state's public service. This is meant to make the public sector more attractive early on in order to recruit skilled workers.

Many students have to do an internship. The SPD wants to pay for these internships in the public sector. This also applies to companies that Bremen mostly owns. That way, more young people may want to work for the state later.

The pay is to apply to mandatory internships in the administration, in Bremen's public institutions, and in companies where Bremen holds the majority. The platform justifies this with the goal of recruiting qualified staff for the public service. Students are to be addressed as early as their orientation phase.

The SPD wants to fight poverty mainly through higher incomes. It relies on broader collective bargaining coverage, the minimum wage and better pay in fields such as paid care work.

The SPD says poverty comes from pay that is too low. More companies should pay according to union wage agreements. These agreements set pay and working conditions. Care jobs should also be paid better.

In the platform's view, only collective bargaining coverage secures decent working conditions and adequate wages. Precarious employment is to be fought. The platform points to Bremen's state minimum wage, which since 2022 has been tied to the lowest pay grade in the public sector. It says Bremen benefits especially from the federal minimum wage because many workers there earn it. The SPD also sees a need for higher pay in essential jobs.

At the federal level, the SPD wants to push for an adequately funded Kindergrundsicherung (basic child benefit), a new way of calculating standard benefit rates and a better basic pension. In Bremen, it plans subsidies for new household appliances for people receiving Bürgergeld (citizen's income) or housing benefits.

The SPD wants to help people with little money more. There should be a good basic child benefit nationwide. Bremen should give money for new home appliances. This is for people who get citizen's income or housing benefits.

At the federal level, the SPD supports the planned basic child benefit, calls for a new basis for calculating standard benefit rates and wants improvements to the Grundrente (basic pension). The state program is to subsidize appliances such as refrigerators or washing machines and instant water heaters; neighborhood energy counseling is to continue. A voucher model for debt counseling based on Hannover's approach will be examined, which would replace discretionary decisions by job centers. Under the new rent index, benchmark housing costs are to keep distinguishing between residential locations.

The SPD wants to stabilize and expand publicly funded employment for the long-term unemployed. Additional funding routes are meant to keep people from falling back into basic welfare once a program ends.

Some people have been out of work for a very long time. The state pays for special jobs for them. The SPD wants more of these jobs. People should not end up without work again afterward. The jobs should be in poorer neighborhoods.

Through the governing boards of the job centers in Bremen and Bremerhaven, the SPD wants to secure more and better job placements in neighborhoods. Programs are to lead more often to training with a formal qualification, using the options of the Bürgergeld (citizen's income). The party wants to examine municipal employment programs financed by a mix of earned revenue, state money and labor market funds, including the passive-active transfer. This is meant to reach groups such as refugees who do not qualify under the Teilhabechancengesetz (participation opportunities act). The jobs are to be located in areas with many low-income residents, for example in neighborhood centers, clubs or religious congregations, and the earlier "Regionale Netze" concept is to be revived.

The SPD wants to enable more people with disabilities to work in the general labor market. The public sector is to lead with a 6 percent quota for severely disabled employees, and the sheltered workshops are to be developed further.

Many people with disabilities work in special workshops. The SPD wants more of them to work in regular companies. In public offices, 6 in 100 employees should be severely disabled. The workshops should change. There should be more companies open to everyone.

The funding tools "Budget für Arbeit" (budget for work) and "Budget für Ausbildung" (budget for training) are to be better known and more strongly supported, with talks planned with the Federal Employment Agency. Pilot projects are to give young people alternatives to workshops, and there are to be incentives for new inclusive companies. In the public sector, the plan includes positions under the budget for work and a dedicated participation department; early retirement against a person's will is to be avoided. The municipal enterprise Werkstatt Bremen is to set up an inclusion department funded by the integration office. The SPD also backs the federal initiative for a new pay system in the workshops and wants to examine applying it in Bremen.

The SPD pursues the vision of a 10-minute city in which shops, doctors, transit stops and services can be reached quickly. This is meant to let older people live independently in their familiar surroundings. The "Ältere im Quartier" (older people in the neighborhood) program is to be continued and expanded.

Older people should be able to stay in their neighborhood. Everything important should be close by. That means shops, doctors and transit stops. Paths should be short and free of barriers. The SPD wants to grow the program "Ältere im Quartier."

The platform counts retail, pharmacies, family doctors, buses and trains, banks, post offices, service centers and culture as local essentials. Routes and venues should also be accessible with a walker or wheelchair. The SPD expects cultural, sports and leisure providers to reach out to older people and wants to support model projects. "Ältere im Quartier" funds shared lunches, help with trips and support for volunteers. Active older people are also to get more information and advice for their volunteer work.

The SPD wants to evaluate the preventive home visit model and, if successful, turn it into a regular service. The "Organisationsassistenz" (organizational assistance) project is also to be made permanent, and meeting places are to be strengthened to counter loneliness in old age.

Some older people get help too late. That is why there are preventive home visits. The SPD wants to review these visits and keep them if they work. Volunteers should keep helping older people with paperwork. Meeting places should help against loneliness.

According to the platform, not all older people use existing support services in time. The "Aufsuchende Altenarbeit" (outreach work with seniors) program can gradually be converted into preventive home visits. In the organizational assistance project, volunteers pre-sort paperwork for older people without relatives; it is to be made permanent and possibly expanded. The SPD wants to strengthen meeting centers and community centers. Neighborhood centers in 14 districts of the city of Bremen are to organize encounters and projects between young and old.

The SPD wants higher pay, better working conditions and broader collective bargaining coverage in the social services sector, financed through service fees and public grants. Training and university places in nursing, child care and social work are also to grow noticeably. It seeks a partnership of equals with civil society and welfare associations.

Many people work in care, daycare and social work. The SPD wants them to be paid better. More union wage agreements should apply. These are fixed rules for pay and work. There should be more training and university places. Skilled workers from abroad should also be able to come.

According to the platform, more than 41,200 people work in Bremen's social services sector, which generates 2.5 billion euros in value. It says working conditions are not good everywhere. The SPD wants to enable qualification pathways and advancement, open up lateral entry and expand the dual degree program in social work. Training is to become financially more attractive and more practice-oriented. The reformed Skilled Immigration Act is also to be used for social and health professions.

The SPD wants to close the pay gap between women and men. To do so, it aims to raise collective bargaining coverage, tighten the federal Pay Transparency Act and push for a gender equality law covering the private sector.

Women often earn less than men. The SPD wants to change that. More companies should pay union-agreed wages. Companies and public offices should have to check their pay. There should also be an equality law for private companies.

The state's law on wage compliance in public contracts is to be renewed and extended to the service sector, where many women work in mini-jobs. At the federal level, employers would have to set procedures that remove unequal pay without those affected having to act themselves. The program cites effective penalties modeled on Iceland and the United Kingdom, plus a right for associations to sue. It also wants to examine how far binding rules for private companies are possible under state law.

The SPD wants to keep funding community centers, neighborhood centers, and leisure facilities for children and teens, with equal standards in every district. Cultural and sports offerings are to be brought to people where they live. Free Wi-Fi is to be rolled out more widely in public facilities and across the city.

The SPD wants to keep giving money to meeting places in the districts. All districts should be equally well equipped. Culture and sports should come to the neighborhoods. There should be more free Wi-Fi in the city.

Targeted funding is to go to neighborhood projects by major cultural institutions and to cross-sector approaches, such as sports clubs making use of cultural offerings. The SPD sees it as its task to strengthen in-person social interaction in leisure time. It welcomes libraries and museums developing their spaces into so-called third places for meeting others.

The SPD wants to make public-sector jobs more attractive in the competition for skilled workers. This includes more flexible working-time models, good pay with union wage deals applied to civil servants, co-determination and more staff for schools, daycare and climate protection.

The government is looking for skilled workers. So the SPD wants to make government jobs more attractive. Working hours should be more flexible. Civil servants should get the same raises as other public employees. Schools, daycare and climate protection should get more staff.

Together with staff councils, the SPD wants to examine how new working-time models and updated rules on working from home can meet the wish for flexibility. Collective wage agreements are to apply to civil servants at the same time and with the same content. The party will also examine where private employers compete especially hard and how hiring bottlenecks can be avoided. Co-determination under the staff representation law will be kept. The SPD wants to meet further staffing needs in schools, daycare and climate protection, in the latter case also by assigning new tasks to existing positions.

The SPD wants trainees in the public sector and in publicly owned companies to receive a permanent job as a rule once they finish training. It also wants more dual study programs to recruit young talent.

People who train with the government should be able to stay afterward. The SPD wants permanent jobs for them. This should also apply in public companies. There should also be more dual study programs. These combine study and work.

The platform sees training programs as a key task for recruitment and also as a responsibility toward young people in Bremen. An exception to the hiring rule is possible in occupations where the public sector trains more people than it needs itself. The range of practice-oriented dual study programs is to grow so that the public sector can keep up in the competition for skilled workers.