SPD on work and social affairs

The SPD wants to create a right to continuing education for all workers and conclude a transformation pact with the federal government to that end. By 2030, more than 100,000 people in Saarland are to take part in further training. The goal is to keep workers from becoming unemployed during structural change.

Many jobs are changing. The SPD wants a right to further training for everyone. It wants to work with the federal government on this. By 2030, over 100,000 people should learn new skills. This should help them keep their jobs.

The program calls for a legal entitlement to training when jobs and occupations change. A skills drive is to address all employees in the state. Funding programs are to be tailored to the situation of Saarland's companies and workers. The effects of change on occupations are to be studied scientifically in order to develop new training and degree programs. The Saarland continuing-education portal will be expanded.

The SPD wants to pay a relocation bonus to skilled workers who move to Saarland, provided the employer contributes the same amount. The Rückhol- und Halteagentur (return and retention agency) is to keep graduates in the state and win back people who moved away. The program sees the shortage of skilled workers as an obstacle to economic growth.

Saarland lacks skilled workers. The SPD wants to pay money for moving to Saarland. The company must add the same amount. An agency should keep young people in the state. It should also bring back people who left.

The bonus requires an equal contribution from the company and proof that the main residence has been moved. The agency is to show career paths and arrange support for career starters, newcomers, and companies seeking staff. Work in the Zukunftsbündnis Fachkräfte Saar alliance and the employment conference will continue and expand. For skilled trades, the SPD plans a succession bonus with an additional one million euros a year for start-ups and business takeovers.

The SPD wants to reduce marginal and insecure employment and backs a federal rule making social insurance mandatory from the first hour worked. Exceptions to the minimum wage and fixed-term contracts without a stated reason are to go, and abuse of temp agency work is to be tackled.

The SPD wants fewer insecure jobs. Every hour of work should be covered by social insurance. The minimum wage should apply to everyone. Short-term contracts without a reason should end. Temp workers should get equal pay right away.

The program treats jobs with full social insurance as the benchmark for the labor market. At state level the SPD wants to use every option against marginal and precarious work. At federal level it calls for a law requiring social insurance from the first hour. Minimum wage exceptions and fixed-term contracts without objective grounds are to be abolished. For temp agency work it seeks a shorter maximum assignment period and equal pay from the start.

The SPD wants to leave shop opening hours and working hours unchanged and keep Sunday as a day off. It also calls for a right to be unreachable, a legal framework for mobile work, and a separate law on employee data protection.

The SPD does not want to change shop opening hours. Sunday should stay a day off. Workers should not have to be reachable after work. There should be clear rules for working from home.

The program justifies these demands with new forms of work since the COVID pandemic. Mobile work and working from home are to be regulated with health in mind. A broad dialogue on the future of work is to lead to a state strategy. The SPD wants clear rules for new workplace technologies such as artificial intelligence. The projects Betriebsmonitor Gute Arbeit Saar and BASaar are to continue.

The SPD wants to strengthen collective bargaining coverage through Saarland's Fairer-Lohn-Gesetz (Fair Wage Act), under which public contracts go only to firms paying collectively agreed wages. The threshold is to be lowered, and business subsidies are to follow the same idea.

The state only gives contracts to firms that pay union-agreed wages. The SPD wants this rule to cover more contracts. State aid for firms should depend on it too. More staff should check the rule.

The program says collectively agreed pay is better than the minimum wage. In the next term, the contract value at which the law applies is to be lowered. The inspection authority is to get more staff. In the SPD's view this protects both workers and employers from wage dumping. It also wants to make it easier to declare collective agreements generally binding.

The SPD wants to bring unemployment below its pre-pandemic level and reach 400,000 jobs with social insurance in Saarland. To do so, the state programs ASaar and Jugend in Arbeit (Youth in Work) are to be continued and expanded.

The SPD wants fewer jobless people in Saarland. 400,000 people should have a regular job. The state should give jobless people better advice and training. Young people get help starting their careers.

The state program Arbeit für das Saarland (ASaar) is to keep supporting publicly funded employment, focus more on training for people on basic income support, and get more money. Unemployed people with and without disabilities are to receive fuller counseling and training, partly to ease labor shortages. Job centers get funding, and cooperation in the Saarland Employment Pact continues. Access to the employment administration is to stay open as services go digital. Jugend in Arbeit is to be expanded as needed.

The SPD wants to remove legal and bureaucratic obstacles for people who commute across the border to work. The shared labor market in the Greater Region is to be strengthened, as the COVID period exposed problems.

Many people work in a neighboring country. They often have trouble with rules and offices. The SPD wants to fix these problems. An advice center for workers from abroad should stay.

The program cites border crossing rules, the tax treatment of working from home, and short-time work benefits as examples. The SPD wants to work with the Task Force Grenzgänger (cross-border commuters) and labor market bodies in the border region. The advice center for migrant and mobile workers at the Saarland Chamber of Labor is to continue.

The SPD wants to expand co-determination and sees it as a competitive advantage, especially during structural change. Works councils are to get more rights, people founding them are to be protected from dismissal, and the state is to get a new staff representation law.

Workers should have more say at work. People who want to start a works council should be safe from being fired. A works council speaks for the workers in a company. Public employees should also get more say.

At federal level the SPD calls for a law strengthening works councils that adapts and widens participation rights. Avoiding co-determination by converting into a European company (SE) is to be stopped, and the gap in one-third board representation is to be closed. Works councils are to get initiative and co-determination rights on time recording, training, equality, fair pay, and work-family balance. Saarland's staff representation law is to match the standards of the Works Constitution Act and be modernized regarding the conciliation board.

The SPD wants a right to continuing education for all employees and five days of educational leave without workers having to contribute their own time off. Providers are to be funded so that their courses are affordable for everyone.

All employees should have a right to continuing education. They should get five days off for it. They should not have to give up their own free time. Courses should be affordable for everyone.

The platform links continuing education to advancement through education, especially during structural change. Together with chambers and companies, information about offerings is to be improved. General adult education is to be organized close to home with adult education centers, church-based and other providers, and be compatible with family and work. In addition, all areas of education from daycare to adult learning are to be brought together in one ministry, and local education networks supported.

The SPD wants to halve poverty in Saarland within five years. It relies on support in affected neighborhoods, education as prevention, a new action plan against poverty and an expanded emergency fund against energy shutoffs.

Many people in Saarland are poor, including many children. The SPD wants to cut poverty in half in five years. It wants to give extra support to poor neighborhoods, above all daycare centers and schools. People who cannot pay for power or gas should get help.

According to the program, one in five children in Saarland is poor, and more than 150,000 people are affected overall. In disadvantaged neighborhoods, daycare places are to be created, daycare centers and schools better equipped, and school social work and community work strengthened. The SPD wants to advance the Kindergrundsicherung (basic child allowance) in the state. The action plan against poverty is to be relaunched together with the responsible advisory board and made assessable through the state's poverty and wealth reports. The emergency fund for electricity shutoffs is to cover all energy shutoffs in the future, and the round table on the issue will continue.