SPD on work and social affairs

The SPD wants to push at the federal level for the statutory minimum wage to rise in stages to 15 euros. It also wants the Minimum Wage Commission reformed. The platform justifies this as respect for people who work hard yet barely get by.

The SPD wants a higher minimum wage. It should rise step by step to 15 euros an hour. The party will push for this at the national level. The commission that sets the minimum wage should also change.

The platform points to the increase to 12 euros and the further rise on January 1, 2024, which the SPD considers necessary. It wants to continue on this path and pursue a reform of the Minimum Wage Commission and a 15-euro target at the federal level. The party sees the minimum wage as a floor only; beyond that it wants to strengthen works councils and staff councils.

The SPD wants a statewide action plan so that more companies in Saxony pay under collective agreements. The aim is to eliminate the wage gap between eastern and western Germany. In the platform's view, companies with collective agreements offer better pay and more secure jobs.

The SPD wants more collective agreements in Saxony. A collective agreement sets pay and working conditions for many workers. There should be a plan for the whole state. Wages in the east should be as high as in the west.

The platform calls for an action plan covering all of Saxony to increase collective bargaining coverage. The SPD also wants to strengthen works councils and staff councils, expand social partnership, and promote new cooperation between unions and employers. Together with workers and unions, it wants to fight for equal pay for equal work in east and west. The platform argues that companies bound by collective agreements are more family-friendly, pay more attention to workplace safety, and help secure skilled workers.

The SPD rejects restricting the right to strike, lengthening working hours, or eliminating a public holiday. At the same time, the state should keep stepping in when wages are not enough to live on during crises.

The SPD does not want to limit the right to strike. People should not have to work longer hours. No public holiday should be cut. In a crisis, the state should keep helping with money.

The platform rejects three demands: cuts to the right to strike, longer working hours, and dropping a public holiday. It recalls that the federal and state governments recently cushioned the effects of inflation and high energy costs. The SPD sees it as solidarity that the state will continue to intervene when incomes fall short in times of crisis.

The SPD rules out cuts in the social sector and wants to secure and expand the counseling and support services run by associations and nonprofit providers. Funding is to become simpler and be guaranteed over several years.

The SPD does not want to cut social services. Associations help people with money worries or addiction, for example. They should get secure funding for several years. The services should be open to everyone.

The platform calls associations and providers the foundation of social infrastructure, for example in cases of financial trouble, addiction or family problems. Funding channels are to be simplified, and employees are to get long-term financial security. Adequate multi-year funding is also meant to help attract workers from Germany and abroad to the social sector. At the same time, the structures are to be made accessible and inclusive.

The SPD wants to give employees in Saxony a legal right to five paid days of educational leave per year. To that end, it supports the citizens' petition for an educational leave law.

Workers should get five days off each year for further education. They should keep getting paid during that time. The SPD wants a law for this. It should also help volunteer work.

The party is part of an alliance for five days of educational leave in Saxony. The leave is to cover vocational, political, general and cultural education as well as training for volunteer work. According to the SPD, employees, associations and employers all benefit, and Saxony improves its position in the competition for workers. The platform calls on companies to actively promote further training.

The SPD wants to launch a pilot project for the four-day week in Saxony. It is to focus on physically or mentally demanding jobs and shift work.

The SPD wants to test the four-day week in Saxony. The test should focus on hard jobs. That includes shift work. The SPD also wants a right to be unreachable. This means you do not have to answer calls after work.

The platform points to trials in other European countries where, it says, productivity and quality of life went up. The SPD sees flexible working-time models as part of good work and of balancing family and career. Companies, works and staff councils, and employees are to be encouraged to try such models. The SPD also supports a right to be unreachable outside working hours.

The SPD wants to strengthen the work of works councils and staff councils and prevent obstruction when works councils are being set up. Specialized prosecutors' offices are to be created as points of contact.

Works councils speak for the employees in a company. No one should be allowed to block their creation. The SPD wants to set up special prosecutors' offices for this. Works councils can turn to them.

The platform stresses that works councils and staff councils mostly work on a volunteer basis for employees' interests. Specialized prosecutors' offices are to serve as central contacts for works councils. The SPD wants to develop the Staff Representation Act, which governs co-determination in the public sector, further through dialogue.

The SPD wants to try out new working-time models such as the four-day week, expand working from home and promote job sharing. The aim is to give families more time and to spread caregiving, childcare and housework more evenly between women and men.

Families should have more time together. So the SPD wants to test new ways of working. One example is a week with four working days. Working from home should be possible more often. Women and men should share housework and childcare more fairly.

According to the platform, care work currently falls mostly on women. To ease the load, the SPD names reliable childcare and education services, support for household services and the option of flexibly cutting working hours without loss of pay. The state administration and state-owned companies are to lead the way with mobile work and job sharing, and businesses are to get support in piloting such models. Vocational training and university studies should also be possible part-time, which is meant to help single parents in particular. Parental leave is to be split more evenly between parents.

The SPD wants to provide more money for volunteer service programs to win additional placements and to raise the volunteers' allowance. Volunteering by young people is also to be strengthened, for example through free training for the youth leader card.

The SPD wants to strengthen volunteer service programs. There should be more places for them. Volunteers should get a higher allowance. Young people who volunteer should also get support. Training for youth leaders should be free.

Conditions for people in volunteer service are to improve, and their allowance is to rise appropriately. The platform names the education transit ticket for volunteers as a step already taken. Initial and further training for the Jugendleitercard (Juleica, a youth leader certificate) is to become free for everyone. The SPD wants to expand the service office for child and youth participation, which advises and trains on forms of participation. Engagement outside of school is to receive more recognition.