SPD on work and social affairs

The SPD wants to promote the skilled trades and support dual vocational training. Vocational and academic education are to be treated as truly equal.

The SPD wants to strengthen the skilled trades. There should be more skilled workers. The SPD wants to advertise for trade jobs. Job training should count just as much as a university degree.

In the program's view, climate protection works like a stimulus program for mid-sized firms and the trades, for example in building renovation and solar installation. Without enough skilled tradespeople, it says, the climate targets cannot be met. The SPD sees meeting that need as a task for politics. It relies on dual training in the trades, retail and services.

The SPD wants to develop a master plan for good work in Lower Saxony together with unions and employers. Temporary agency work is to be regulated more tightly and the abuse of contracts for work and services is to be tackled, because the program sees insecure and low-paid work as widespread.

The SPD wants better jobs in Lower Saxony. It wants to make a big plan for this. Unions and employers should help. There should be stricter rules for temp work. Everyone should be able to live well on their pay.

The master plan is to focus on occupational health and safety, training and qualification, flexible working models, and labor and social standards. The state is to set an example as an employer, a contracting authority and a training provider. New forms of work such as crowdwork and clickwork are not to be organized without worker participation. The SPD also wants to back unions and employers when they seek shorter working hours.

The SPD wants to expand employees' say in their companies and backs union initiatives for reform. It argues that companies with strong employee participation are more successful and cope better with change.

Workers should have more say in their company. The SPD wants to update the rules for this. It supports the unions on this. The SPD believes companies with a strong worker voice do better.

The program calls co-determination a pillar of a democratic and solidarity-based society. According to the SPD, employees, works councils and union representatives know the work processes best and can contribute ideas and act as a corrective. This matters especially during economic transformation and changes within companies. The party therefore wants to support union proposals for reforming workplace co-determination.

The SPD wants to strengthen collective bargaining coverage and spend public money only on good work. All public contracts are to be tied to representative collective agreements, as is business development funding.

More people should be paid under collective agreements. That is a contract on pay and working hours. The state should only give contracts to firms that follow such agreements. Funding should also go only to firms with good jobs.

Where the state can act on its own, the rules on representative collective agreements and on declaring agreements generally binding are to be improved. Subsidies, contract awards and procurement are to follow good-work criteria, above all job security. Mandatory criteria for sustainable and social procurement are to be written into the Tariftreue- und Vergabegesetz (state law on wage compliance and public contracts), and enforcement is to improve. As an employer, the state wants to permanently end fixed-term contracts without objective grounds, especially at universities.

The SPD wants to improve occupational safety through more inspections, especially in the food industry and agriculture, and to add staff at the trade inspectorates. Safety rules are also to apply fully when people work from home.

The SPD wants more checks on safety at work. The offices that do this should get more staff. Safety rules should also apply when people work at home. People should have time off in the evening there too.

The trade inspection offices are to get more staff. Existing advice centers for mobile workers are to receive secure funding to protect these workers from exploitation. For work from home, the program stresses the right to switch off, especially for people who also care for children. Companies are not to bear a double burden when they provide workplaces both on site and at home, or they are to get tax relief. In a pilot, state employees are to be able to work in coworking spaces near their homes at the state's expense.

The SPD wants to tackle the shortage of skilled workers with regional alliances, new service centers for companies and more immigration into the labor market. At the same time, more people within the country are to be brought into work, such as women, older people and the long-term unemployed.

Lower Saxony lacks skilled workers. The SPD wants to help companies find staff. There will be new contact points for this. Skilled workers from abroad should also come. More women and older people should be able to work.

The regional skilled-worker alliances are to get secure funding, and the state's skilled-worker initiative is to be reorganized. Service centers are to advise companies on recruiting and keeping staff. People with severe disabilities are to move more easily into the regular labor market. The SPD wants to make full use of the Fachkräfteeinwanderungsgesetz (Skilled Immigration Act) together with companies and expand the "Start Guides" program.

The SPD wants to create a public employment sector with fair conditions for the long-term unemployed. A statewide funding program for nonprofit organizations and municipalities is to be set up for this.

Some people have been out of work for a very long time. The SPD wants to create publicly paid jobs for them. The conditions should be fair. The state should give money to towns and nonprofit groups for this.

The state funding program is to supplement the federal Teilhabechancengesetz (Participation Opportunities Act). That law subsidizes jobs for people who have been unemployed for a long time. Nonprofit organizations and municipalities are to receive the state funding.

The SPD wants employees to have a stronger say in digitalization at their workplace and will push for this at the federal level. Platform work is to get fair rules, and the digital gap between women and men at work is to be closed.

The SPD wants workers to have more say. This is about digital technology at work. Work through online platforms should get fair rules. Women should get more support with digital technology at work.

Works councils and staff councils are to receive training and technology advice. The SPD wants to agree on a pact for digital training with employers and unions. Forums are to bring together science, business, unions, public administration and civil society to shape the transition. The party opposes platforms that wrongly classify workers as self-employed. To close the "digital gender gap," it plans training for women, support at the workplace and help with starting businesses.

The SPD backs a guarantee of a vocational training place for every young person in the state. Where companies train fewer people than needed, it supports levy funds. The platform calls dual training the backbone of Lower Saxony's economy.

The SPD wants every young person to get a training place. Some industries train too few people. There, companies should pay into a shared fund. Young people should also get more help choosing a job.

Training networks and regional partnerships are to be funded, and training is to be kept available across rural areas. Matching between companies and applicants is to improve, and support during training is to grow for young people who need more help. Career guidance at general schools is to be expanded and give equal information on college and vocational paths; career coaching, training guides and help for parents are added. Girls and young women are to be encouraged to choose jobs beyond gender stereotypes. Affordable housing is to be created for trainees.

The SPD wants to press in the Bundesrat for the prompt introduction of a Kindergrundsicherung (basic child allowance) that incorporates benefits under SGB II (basic income support). The aim is to curb child poverty and improve all children's participation in society.

Many children in Lower Saxony are poor. The SPD wants a basic child allowance. This is money from the state for children. The SPD wants to push for it in the Bundesrat. Children from poor families should also get help with their training.

The platform notes that one in five children in Lower Saxony is poor or at risk of poverty, with effects on education and future prospects. The basic child allowance is to come quickly at the federal level and absorb existing SGB II benefits for children. In addition, the SPD plans measures to support children and young people from educationally disadvantaged households on their path through training. Schools and youth work are to be well connected for this purpose.

The SPD wants to secure the work of guardianship associations and give more support to volunteer legal guardians. It points out that an aging society needs more guardianships.

Some people can no longer manage their own affairs. A guardian then helps them. The SPD wants to secure the associations that do this work. Volunteer guardians should get more help.

According to the platform, guardianship associations support volunteers and advise citizens, for example on lasting powers of attorney. The SPD wants to secure this work. Professional guardians are to be subject to uniform quality standards and receive good initial and continuing training.

The SPD plans a program called "Zukunft Gesundheits-, Sozial- und Pflegeberufe" (future of health, social and care professions) to counter the shortage of skilled workers. It is to bring more training, tuition-free schooling in all social professions, more part-time jobs and better conditions in the voluntary social year.

Social jobs lack skilled workers. So the SPD wants to start a new program. Training for social jobs should no longer cost school fees. There should be more part-time jobs. The voluntary social year should also get better.

Tuition-free training is to be fully implemented in all social occupations. More part-time positions in medicine, care and social work are meant to make family and career easier to combine. State universities are to offer more dual-study places in social work, and students at private universities are to receive financial support. For volunteer services, the SPD plans uniform statewide quality standards for providers, implementation of a right to volunteer service, and incentives such as free transit passes.

The SPD wants to stabilize the services of welfare associations and fund them on a permanent basis. A long-term infrastructure fund is to be created for the digitalization of the social sector, and digital counseling is to be expanded.

Welfare groups help many people, for example with debt or addiction. The SPD wants to pay for this help for the long term. A new fund will give money for digital technology. A fund is a pot of money for one purpose. Counseling should also be offered online.

The platform names debt counseling, addiction support, family and youth services, pregnancy counseling and help for the homeless as especially important fields. The SPD wants to develop a refinancing model for digital counseling services. Technical equipment at counseling centers and staff's technical skills are also to be funded. Existing funding for small and medium-sized businesses for digital and sustainable transformation is to be opened to nonprofit welfare organizations.

The SPD wants to curb the low-wage sector and limit temporary agency work, fixed-term contracts and mini-jobs. Broader collective bargaining coverage, support for low-skilled workers and a social, inclusive labor market are meant to secure wages that protect against poverty.

Many people earn very little. The SPD wants to change that. There should be less temp work and fewer mini-jobs. More employers should pay union-agreed wages. People without a degree should get support.

According to the platform, low wages mainly affect women, young workers, people without qualifications and migrants. Equal pay for equal work is to apply everywhere, especially in social work, health and education jobs with many female employees. The SPD names flexible childcare and further training as levers; more flexible working-time models are to be examined to lower the poverty risk of women and single parents. In the long run, the platform aims for a labor market that also lets the long-term unemployed earn an adequate living.

The SPD wants to strengthen municipalities in providing basic care for people living on the street. Projects based on the Housing First principle, under which homeless people first receive a home of their own, are to be expanded and funded.

The SPD wants to give better help to people without a home. Local governments should get support for this. Homeless people should have food, clothing and washrooms. The SPD also supports Housing First. That means a person gets a home of their own first.

According to the platform, the situation of homeless people worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic; in emergency shelters, up to 70 people are sometimes housed in one room. Care through street medical services across the state is to improve. Daytime places to stay, meals, clothing and access to sanitary facilities are to be secured. Where rooms are available, accommodation is to be created quickly. The SPD regards a home of one's own as the foundation for coping with life.