SPD on work and social affairs

The SPD wants to tackle the skilled-labor shortage with better vocational training, more upskilling and continued immigration of skilled workers. It rejects longer working hours or weaker protections for employees.

Germany lacks skilled workers. The SPD wants to spend more on training. Young people without a degree should get a chance. Women in part-time work or mini-jobs should be able to work more if they want. Skilled workers from abroad should keep coming too.

The platform wants to better include people who have had few opportunities so far, especially young people without a vocational qualification and women in involuntary part-time work and mini-jobs. It attributes calls for working longer and for weaker worker protections to the CDU and rejects them. Citing studies, the SPD assumes Germany needs several hundred thousand skilled workers per year.

The SPD wants to secure employment during economic upheaval through training, short-time work and direct job-to-job placement. People who take training while unemployed would be able to draw unemployment benefits for longer as a result.

The SPD wants to protect jobs. People who lose a job should find a new one fast. People who are jobless and learn new skills get unemployment pay for longer. The time spent learning will not count.

Regional alliances, training agencies and transformation clusters are to receive more support, along with easy-to-access advice, especially for small and medium-sized firms. Employers' associations, unions and the Federal Employment Agency are to team up regionally to move workers from companies cutting staff to companies that are hiring. Transfer companies are to be developed so that smaller firms can use them too. Time spent in training would no longer reduce the period for which unemployment benefits are paid.

The SPD wants to reform the Works Constitution Act and give works councils full co-determination rights in several areas. Employee rights on supervisory boards are also to be strengthened and workarounds stopped.

Works councils speak for the workers in a company. The SPD wants to give them more rights. For example, they should help decide on staffing and on artificial intelligence. People who obstruct works councils should be punished more easily.

Agreement with the works council would be required on staff planning and staffing levels, the use of artificial intelligence, health protection and in-company training. People who initiate a works council election are to be better protected. Obstructing co-determination would become an offense prosecuted by the state on its own initiative. Supervisory boards would be subject to a statutory minimum list of transactions that require approval. Ways of bypassing co-determination, for instance via European company law, are to be ended. In addition, the handling of data in the workplace is to be regulated and platform workers are to get more support.

The SPD wants to abolish fixed-term employment contracts that lack an objective reason. It also wants to expand health protection at work and keep sick pay in place.

Some job contracts end after a set time for no reason. The SPD wants to ban that. It also wants to protect health at work better. People who are sick should keep getting paid.

Besides ending fixed-term contracts without cause, the permitted reasons for fixed terms are also to be reviewed. Risk assessments are to be carried out far more often, and the procedure for bringing employees back to work after long illness is to become more binding. Rehabilitation and prevention are to be expanded and made easier to access, and mental strain is to get more attention in occupational safety. The coordination offices for workplace health promotion are to broaden their services. The SPD wants to defend continued pay during illness.

The SPD wants every employment relationship to be covered by social insurance and wants to make it easier to move from mini-jobs into insured work. In the platform's view, mini-jobs lead to poverty in old age. The SPD also backs equal pay for equal work and work of equal value.

Mini-jobs have little social protection today. The SPD wants to change that. Every job should pay into social insurance. There are exceptions for some groups, such as retirees. Women and men should earn the same.

Transition rules are planned for existing jobs, and exceptions for certain groups such as retirees. Abuse of mini-jobs is to be tackled. To close the pay gap between women and men, the platform relies on equal pay and broader coverage by collective agreements, arguing that grading and pay are often fairer under such agreements.

The SPD wants to make every recipient of Bürgergeld (citizen's income) a suitable offer and put more money into active labor market policy. It keeps the duty to cooperate, saying Bürgergeld is not an unconditional basic income.

People who get Bürgergeld should receive a suitable offer of work. Job centers should get more money and staff. People still have to cooperate. The SPD says Bürgergeld comes with conditions.

The passive-active transfer is to be expanded, simplified and written into law; it redirects money that would otherwise be paid as benefits into subsidized employment. Job centers are to get enough staff and funding for close, individual counseling. People with health limitations are to get better support in counseling and integration. The social labor market, with jobs covered by social insurance, is meant to open a path into regular work for the long-term unemployed.

The statutory minimum wage is to rise to 15 euros by 2026 at the latest. The SPD bases this on the European directive, under which it should reach at least 60 percent of the median income.

The minimum wage is the lowest pay allowed. The SPD wants to raise it to 15 euros an hour. That should apply by 2026 at the latest. A European rule serves as the yardstick.

The Minimum Wage Commission would in future have to take the European benchmark into account. The platform stresses how much the wage floor matters in eastern Germany and in occupations where many women work. For lastingly higher pay, however, the SPD names stronger collective bargaining coverage as the decisive factor.

The SPD wants to bring considerably more employees under collective agreements. A Bundestariftreuegesetz (federal collective-wage compliance law) would tie federal contracts to collectively agreed pay. In the platform's view, collective agreements mean higher pay and better working conditions.

Collective agreements set pay and working rules for many workers. The SPD wants more companies to pay by these agreements. The federal government should give contracts only to such companies. The right to strike should stay as it is.

The same principle is to apply to European public contracts, which is why the SPD seeks a European wage-compliance law. State subsidies for corporate transformation would be tied to collective agreements, site development, job security and training. It would become easier to declare collective agreements generally binding, and unions would gain the right to bring collective lawsuits. The SPD rejects restrictions on the right to strike.

The SPD wants to organize the welfare state around people's life situations rather than agency responsibilities. Applications would be simplified, benefits combined and central contact points created. Certain benefits would be paid without an application.

The SPD wants to make getting help from the state easier. There should be one place for all questions. Nobody should have to go from office to office. Child benefit should come automatically. People would not need to apply.

The contact points are meant to be close to home, easy to access, multilingual, barrier-free and usable online, bringing all agencies together instead of adding a new one. The administration would check on its own what a person is entitled to. The SPD also wants to strengthen self-governance in the social insurance system and allow its elections to be held online. It regards welfare associations as important partners.