SPD on work and social affairs

The SPD wants employees to share more in company profits, through higher wages and through jointly controlled equity stakes. It also wants to extend co-determination in workplaces and companies to more topics. The party argues this makes the economy stronger.

The SPD wants workers to get more of their company's profit. This should happen through higher pay. It should also happen through shares that workers manage together. Workers should also have more say in their company.

The platform sees equity participation as a complement to expanded co-determination rights. Employees and unions are to have a say on training, digitalization, staff planning and future strategy as well. The reasoning given is that workers often know the most practical solutions. The approaches of the "Arbeit 2020" project, which ended late the previous year, are to be rolled out to more companies and sectors in a broad program.

The SPD wants to tie the state's public investments to fair pay by law. A Tariftreue- und Vergabegesetz (law on collective-wage compliance in public procurement) is meant to ensure the planned spending on climate and digitalization also benefits workers.

The state spends a lot of money on contracts. The SPD wants a law for this. The law should secure fair pay. Companies with state contracts should pay their workers fairly.

The law is to apply to all state investments. Collective-wage compliance means public contracts are tied to paying collectively agreed wages. The platform links this to the planned long-term state investments, which the party says should benefit everyone.

The SPD wants to add 1,000 positions to the workplace safety authority and equip it better. Violations are to be pursued more consistently, with every public prosecutor's office getting a prosecutor trained in workplace safety law. The party says this is to prevent exploitation.

The SPD wants to strengthen workplace safety. It plans 1,000 new jobs for this. The inspectors should get good equipment. Every prosecutor's office should have an expert on workplace safety.

The workplace safety authority is to become a modern and effective enforcement body. Every public prosecutor's office in the state is to have a prosecutor with special training in workplace safety. The platform says good work is a matter of course for many businesses, but not for all.

The SPD wants to strengthen the Sozialer Arbeitsmarkt (publicly subsidized jobs for the long-term unemployed) in regions with high unemployment through an eight-million-euro state program. For people without a qualification, training is to take priority over job placement, and the inclusive labor market is to be expanded with state programs.

The SPD wants to give better help to people without work. The state should provide eight million euros for this. People without a diploma should be able to learn first. People with disabilities should find work more easily. Debt counseling should be expanded.

The state program is to supplement federal programs and provide start-up funding in regions affected by structural change. Debt counseling is to be expanded in a low-threshold, outreach-based form. Public contracts are to go more often to companies offering inclusive jobs. The SPD backs the demand to apply the minimum wage in workshops for people with disabilities. Counseling centers for the unemployed and unemployment centers are to continue to be funded according to need.

The SPD wants to give people of every age a right to a volunteer service placement. The voluntary social year and the voluntary ecological year are to get more state money, and volunteers are to ride buses and trains in the state for free.

The SPD wants everyone to be allowed to do volunteer service. Age should not matter. The state should give more money for this. Volunteers should ride buses and trains in North Rhine-Westphalia for free.

State funding for the FSJ (voluntary social year) and FÖJ (voluntary ecological year) is to rise to the level of the Bundesfreiwilligendienst (federal volunteer service). Free travel is to cover all local public transport in North Rhine-Westphalia and is meant as a sign of appreciation. The platform calls cooperation with welfare associations and independent providers an essential part of the welfare state.

The SPD supports a nationwide Kindergrundsicherung (basic child benefit) and an appropriate increase in basic income support for adults. At the state level it wants to keep school materials free and fund advice centers for people in debt, consumers and the unemployed.

The SPD wants to fight poverty. It backs a basic child benefit for all of Germany. This is money for children. Adults with little money should also get more. School books should stay free. Advice centers should keep getting state money.

Poverty policy is to be based on social reporting that reveals structural disadvantages and guides support for disadvantaged neighborhoods. Debt counseling and consumer protection services are to receive support. The SPD wants to keep funding centers for the unemployed and advice offices for jobless people and to strengthen their work. According to the platform, participation in society should not depend on income.

The SPD wants to fund opportunities for people in all life situations to meet one another. Loneliness and isolation are to be treated as a cross-departmental task of the state government.

Many people are lonely. The SPD wants to fund places and programs where people can meet. The whole state government should work on this issue. Senior officials should coordinate the work.

The platform says loneliness and alienation have become widespread, partly because of the pandemic. It argues that social ties matter for mental and physical health. Coordination is to sit with the state secretaries, the senior officials below the ministers.

The SPD wants to help older people take part in life within their familiar surroundings. Municipalities are to get support, research on aging is to be strengthened, and senior citizens' councils expanded.

The SPD wants old people to live well in their neighborhood. Cities and towns should get help for this. Researchers should find out which local services are needed. Old people should have more of a say.

A research project is to determine which local structures and services are essential and how they can be funded; concrete funding measures are to follow. Research on aging in the state is to be strengthened. The platform calls fighting growing old-age poverty a central task. Municipal senior citizens' councils and learning and participation programs for older people are to be strengthened further.

The SPD wants to strengthen the participation of people with disabilities and chronic illnesses in work and society. Counseling is to be better connected, assistants trained, and gaps in care closed.

The SPD wants to give people with disabilities better support. They should be able to work and take part everywhere. Counseling services should work together better. Helpers of people with disabilities should get training. People with long-term illness should also get more help.

A scientific study is to examine why existing counseling services fall short of actual needs; steps toward better networking and personal guidance are to follow. Training programs are to be created for assistants and caregivers. The SPD wants to support medical rehabilitation and close gaps in care for mental and neurological illnesses. For the chronically ill, more is to be invested in research on how diseases progress. The state self-help association (LAG Selbsthilfe NRW) and the state disability council are to get more support.

The SPD wants employees in the social services sector to receive collectively agreed wages and good working conditions, whoever the provider is. When social services are commissioned, the cheapest provider should not automatically be chosen.

Many people work in social jobs. The SPD wants all of them to get union-negotiated pay. That is pay agreed between unions and employers. The cheapest provider should not always get the contract.

The program values the work of nonprofit welfare organizations alongside public and private providers. Paying collectively agreed wages should not put a provider at a competitive disadvantage. The SPD wants to work on this together with the unions. Because social services are mostly paid for with public money, any profits of private providers should go toward improving services.