What do the parties in Bremen say on work and social affairs?

The BIW wants to dissolve the Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen (Chamber of Employees), to which all employees in the state must belong and pay dues. In the party's view, the chamber is unnecessary and costly and competes with the labor unions.

In Bremen, all employees must be members of a chamber. They pay dues for it. The BIW wants to abolish this chamber. It considers the chamber unnecessary and expensive.

The BIW wants authorities in the state of Bremen to act firmly against undeclared work and against employers who evade the minimum wage. The goal is a level playing field for all businesses.

Some companies hire people off the books. Some pay less than the minimum wage. The BIW wants the authorities to stop this. Then all companies have the same conditions.

The CDU wants to mobilize more workers within the state. Better childcare is meant to lower the part-time rate, unemployed people are to be able to gain qualifications, and people with disabilities and refugees are to find work more easily.

Bremen lacks skilled workers. The CDU wants better childcare. Then parents can work more, especially women. People without jobs should be able to earn new qualifications. Refugees should learn German quickly and be able to work.

The CDU rejects a mandatory levy on companies for a training fund and would abolish it if it is introduced. In the party's view there are enough apprenticeship places, and a levy would burden firms financially and bureaucratically without creating new places.

The CDU is against a training levy. That is money companies must pay into a fund for training. The CDU says there are enough training places. The levy only costs companies money and time.

The CDU wants to draw up a strategy against loneliness and link it to efforts against poverty. According to the platform, people of all generations are affected, but so far this has been recognized almost only among older people.

Many people are lonely. The CDU wants to change that. It wants to link help against loneliness with help against poverty. For example, there should be more low-cost lunch offers. Young and old people should help each other.

The CDU wants to replace the state government's 2007 plan for the elderly with a new "Masterplan Seniorenpolitik" (senior policy master plan) and give older people more say. Older people should be able to live self-determined, active, and dignified lives.

The CDU wants a new plan for older people. The old plan is from 2007. Seniors should help write the new plan. There should be a seniors' parliament in Bremen. Older people should be able to reach important places easily.

The CDU names full employment as its goal and wants the state's labor market policy to focus more on getting people into jobs. The Beschäftigungspolitisches Aktionsprogramm (BAP, the state's employment action program) is to be reformed and every measure checked for its effect. In the program's view, clear goals and evaluations have been missing so far.

The CDU wants everyone to have a job. People who work should have more money than people who do not. The state has a program to help people find work. The CDU wants to change this program. It wants to check every measure: Does it really get people into work?

The CDU wants to bring Bremen's poverty rate down from more than 28 percent to at least the national average of 16 percent. To do so, it plans a strategy across all departments focused on education, work and the economy, led by the Senate Chancellery.

Many people in Bremen are poor. The CDU wants to change that. Poverty should be no higher than in the rest of Germany. All departments should work together on this. The Senate Chancellery should lead the work.

The CDU wants to launch a vocational training push and redirect employment support toward training with a formal qualification, continuing education and retraining. A "skills monitoring" system is to match existing skills with what businesses need.

The CDU wants to do more for job training. People without work should learn a trade or get more training. The state should check: What can people do? And what do companies need? The courses should fit these needs.

The CDU wants to link the social affairs department more closely with other departments and introduce controlling for social measures. Ineffective measures are to be suspended and effective ones given more money. In the program's view, savings in the largest single budget are not antisocial.

The CDU wants to organize the social affairs office differently. It should work more closely with other offices. The state should check closely which kinds of help work. Help that does not work should stop. Good help should get more money.

The CDU wants to support people in need individually and enable them to live self-determined lives. Case managers are to coordinate all state assistance, and support is to continue even after someone has been placed in a job. Open youth work is also to be strengthened.

The CDU wants to support people one by one. One fixed person should organize all help from the state. There should still be advice after someone starts a job. Companies should get benefits if they hire difficult cases. Youth centers should get more support.

The FDP wants job centers and employment agencies to be required to check whether their reintegration programs work. Only providers that can show an adequate success rate should receive public money. Instead of ready-made courses, support should focus more on the individual unemployed person and on actual jobs.

The FDP wants to check help for unemployed people more closely. Job centers should measure whether a program works. Only successful providers should get public money. Each unemployed person should get help that fits them. The job center should stay in contact the whole time.

The FDP wants to lift the limit on daily working hours and regulate only weekly or monthly working time instead. In its view, the fixed eleven-hour rest period stands in the way of flexible work and of combining family and job. The state should step in only when employers and employees cannot agree.

The FDP wants more flexible working hours. There should be no fixed limit per day anymore. Instead, hours per week or month count. Bosses and workers should agree on this themselves. The state should only help if they cannot agree.

The FDP wants to scrap several restrictions on temporary agency work that it considers outdated. It sees agency work as a way for companies to respond flexibly and as an entry point for the unemployed, the low-skilled, older people and refugees. At the same time, agency workers should become eligible for Kurzarbeitergeld (short-time work allowance).

The FDP wants fewer rules for temp work. In temp work, an agency lends its workers to other companies. People from outside the EU should also be allowed to do this work. Temp work should also be allowed in construction. The 18-month limit should go.

The FDP wants to scrap Bremen's state minimum wage. It argues that the wage is unnecessary alongside the federal minimum wage and creates red tape that puts Bremen companies at a disadvantage compared with neighboring Lower Saxony. The party backs collective bargaining autonomy and rejects politically set wages.

Bremen has its own minimum wage. The FDP wants to abolish it. It says there is already a minimum wage for all of Germany. The Bremen wage causes a lot of paperwork for companies. Employers and unions should set wages, not politicians.

The FDP wants to end compulsory membership and mandatory dues for workers in Bremen's Arbeitnehmerkammer (Chamber of Employees). Instead, membership should be voluntary and paid, as is common with unions and political parties. The party argues that workers otherwise have to help fund political goals they do not share.

In Bremen, all workers must be members of the Chamber of Employees. They pay dues for it. The FDP wants to end this duty. Everyone should decide for themselves whether to join and pay.

The FDP wants to strengthen older people's social participation, for example through meeting places, home visits and support for their volunteer work. Senior facilities are to have Wi-Fi throughout and offer digital training.

The FDP wants old people to take part in city life. There should be places to meet and things to do. Homes for seniors should have Wi-Fi everywhere. Old people should also learn there how to use digital devices. The FDP also wants to support volunteer work by seniors.

The FDP wants to create more suitable training places and jobs for people with disabilities. Sheltered workshops are to place their workers in regular jobs more often, and companies are to receive better advice and support.

People with disabilities should find a regular job more easily. The FDP wants to give companies better advice and support for this. Workshops for people with disabilities should move more people into regular jobs. Advice for the people themselves should also get better.

The Greens want older people to be able to live in their familiar surroundings for as long as they wish. Short distances, accessibility, meeting places and good neighborhood services are meant to make that possible. The decline of local shops and services is to be reversed and loneliness in old age addressed.

Older people should be able to live well in Bremen and Bremerhaven. Shops, doctors and meeting places should be close by. The Greens want to do something about loneliness. Helpers should visit older people at home. There should also be services for older queer people.

The Greens want to give more funding to neighborhood support networks, community centers, service centers and meeting places. Digital services are meant to help reduce loneliness in old age. The seniors' council is to remain involved in political decisions.

The Greens want to give more support to neighbors helping each other. This includes meeting places and centers in the neighborhood. Older people should get help with the internet. This should help against loneliness. The seniors' council should keep having a say.

The Greens want to push at the federal level for a higher Bürgergeld (citizen's income) that rises with the cost of living. Bremen's own city and state programs are meant to let people on basic income support take part in social and cultural life. The party backs the Kindergrundsicherung (basic child allowance).

The Greens want a higher Bürgergeld. That is the basic income support. It should go up when prices go up. They will push for this at the federal level. Bremen should help with its own programs. Poor people should be able to take part in culture and leisure. The Greens support a basic child allowance.

The Greens want to fund advice and support services for people affected by poverty and make them easier to access. Debt counseling is to accompany people until their personal bankruptcy proceedings are finished. Food banks (Tafeln) are to get relief on their operating costs.

The Greens want better advice for poor people. People with debts should get help for a long time. The help should last until their bankruptcy case ends. People should find the right advice office faster. The cities should pay some costs of the food banks.

The Greens want to give intensive support to the long-term unemployed, including through a publicly subsidized labor market. Bremen's labor market programs are to be continued, stepped up and extended. At the federal level, the party wants the Teilhabechancengesetz (Participation Opportunities Act) to apply permanently.

The Greens want to help people who have been out of work for a long time. The state should also pay for jobs for them. Bremen's programs should run longer. There should be better preparation courses. A federal support law should have no end date.

The Greens want to involve workers in the shift to a climate-neutral economy and support them with training and advice. So-called transformation guides are meant to improve training for the changing world of work. In the party's view, investment in climate protection creates new jobs.

The economy should become climate-neutral. That means it should no longer harm the climate. The Greens want workers to have a say in this. Workers should get advice and training. Special guides should help with that.

The Greens want stricter checks on whether companies comply with collective agreements when they receive public contracts. Violations could lead as far as exclusion from public procurement. In addition, migrant workers and platform economy workers are to be better protected.

Companies with government contracts should pay union-agreed wages. The Greens want stricter checks on this. Companies that break the rules should get no more contracts. Workers from other countries should get better protection. This also applies to work through internet platforms.

The Greens want to keep promoting remote work and expand the structures that support it. To do so, they call for reforming the Occupational Safety Act and the Working Hours Act so that flexible work is legally secure while employees remain protected.

Many people have worked from home since the pandemic. The Greens want to keep this possible. Two laws should be changed for this. Workers should stay well protected.

The Greens want better protection for people working through digital labor platforms and back the EU's planned rules to that end. They also want to fight exploitative working conditions, improve occupational safety and check that minimum wages are paid.

Some people work through apps and online platforms. Pay and conditions there are often poor. The Greens want to protect these people better. They also want to check that firms pay the minimum wage. Immigrants should know their rights.

At the federal level, the Greens are pushing for "flexible full-time," letting employees choose working hours between 30 and 40 per week. In the long run, the 30-hour week is to count as the new full-time.

The Greens want more flexible working hours. Workers should be able to choose between 30 and 40 hours a week. That way work fits better with family and free time. Later, 30 hours should count as a full job.

The Greens want to draw more young people into dual vocational training. Dorms for trainees, a discounted public transit ticket for trainees and more flexible training conditions are meant to help. Career guidance is to be stepped up at all general schools.

The Greens want more young people to do job training. Trainees should get their own dorms. They should get a cheap ticket for buses and trams. Schools should give better information about jobs. Part-time training should also be possible.

The Greens want to make it easier to recognize vocational qualifications earned abroad and to better connect immigrants with language courses, further training and jobs. The Bremer Weiterbildungsscheck (training voucher) would be increased so that recognition does not fail for lack of money.

Many immigrants learned a trade in another country. The Greens want Bremen to accept these qualifications more easily. There should be more counseling and more money for training. Companies should also get help when they employ immigrants.

The Greens want to make vocational training more inclusive so that more people with disabilities complete a qualification. Their pay should be enough to live on, and moving from sheltered workshops to the regular labor market should become easier.

The Greens want more people with disabilities to finish job training. The training should fit them better. Their pay should be enough to live on. Moving from a sheltered workshop to a regular company should become easier.

The Greens see a major need to reform church labor law, especially regarding the right to strike and rules on employees' private lives. They want to negotiate with church-run social institutions and unions so that these employers stop applying the special rules. State action is also to remove barriers that exist because of religious affiliation.

Special rules apply to people who work for church-run employers. For example, they often may not strike. The Greens want to change this. They want to talk with the institutions and the unions. The employers should give up the special rules voluntarily.

The Greens want to update the action plan on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and cover all areas of life. Education, university study and vocational training are to become more inclusive, and medical care for people with disabilities is to be better resourced.

People with disabilities should be able to take part everywhere. The Greens want to continue Bremen's action plan for this. Daycare centers, schools and universities should be open to all. Job training should happen more often in regular companies. Hospitals should prepare better for these patients.

The Greens want to reshape workshops for people with disabilities so that they open the way into regular employment. The platform argues that many people with disabilities currently have no option other than the workshop.

Many people with disabilities cannot find a regular job. They work in a special workshop instead. The Greens want to change these workshops. The workshops should help people move into regular companies.

The Greens want to campaign at the federal level for a Kindergrundsicherung (basic child allowance). The platform argues that young people in Bremen are often poor and that this reduces their chances in life.

Many young people in Bremen are poor. This hurts their chances in life. So the Greens want a basic child allowance. That is a cash benefit for children. They want to push for it at the national level.

The Greens want to guarantee student assistants contracts of at least two years by law. They also back a collective agreement for student employees and want more internships in public administration to be paid.

Many students work at their university. Their contracts are often very short. The Greens want contracts of at least two years. This should be written into law. There should also be a collective agreement. That is one fixed deal on pay and work for everyone.

The Greens want academic staff who handle permanent tasks to get permanent positions, with open-ended contracts becoming the norm. In the Bundesrat they want to work toward a reform of the Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz (the federal law on fixed-term academic contracts), because in their view chains of short contracts create insecurity rather than innovation.

Many researchers only have short contracts. The Greens want to change that. People with long-term tasks should get a permanent job. A federal law allows many short contracts today. The Greens want that law changed.

The Greens want to attract more people to skilled trades needed for climate protection. They plan a training campaign, more continuing education, a transition company for workers affected by the shift, and a state-level training grant for low-skilled workers.

Bremen needs many skilled trade workers for climate protection. The Greens want more people to choose these jobs. Schools should give better information about job training. People who must learn a new job should get help and money.

The Left wants state-level programs to relieve households hit hardest by rising energy prices. These include a cheaper StadtTicket (discounted transit pass), its extension to Bremerhaven, and a social tariff for electricity.

Energy has become very expensive. The Left wants to help people with little money. The StadtTicket for buses and trams should cost less. It should also be valid in Bremerhaven. Poor households should pay less for electricity.

The Left wants to address the shortage of teachers, childcare workers, and nurses with paid training that runs alongside practical work. At the same time, working conditions in these professions are to improve permanently.

There are too few teachers, childcare workers, and nurses. The Left wants to combine training and work. People train part-time and get paid for it. The jobs themselves should also become better.

The Left wants job options for everyone, including people with few qualifications or no prospects in the regular labor market. To this end, there is to be a large sector of publicly funded work that pays a living wage, and collective agreements and the minimum wage are to be enforced more strictly.

Everyone should be able to find work. Some people cannot manage a regular job. The state should pay for jobs for them. People should be able to live on this work. The state should also check that companies pay fair wages.

The Left calls for an immediate end to sanctions against benefit recipients and for substantially higher standard rates. In its view, even the new Bürgergeld (citizen's income) does not secure a minimum standard of living.

People on Bürgergeld should no longer fear cuts. These cuts are called sanctions. The Left wants to end them right away. The payments should also be much higher. They should rise with prices.

The Left calls for a price cap on food so that no one has to go hungry. Supermarkets and discounters are to be required to hand out still-edible goods close to their expiry date to people in need free of charge.

Food should not become too expensive. The Left wants an upper limit on prices. Supermarkets should give away food shortly before the expiry date. Poor people should get it for free.

The Left wants to ban energy cut-offs because it regards electricity, gas, and water as basic social rights. For benefit recipients, housing and energy costs are to be covered adequately, with electricity paid through housing costs in the future.

No one should have their electricity, gas, or water cut off. The Left wants to ban this. People on benefits should get money for electricity and heating. There should also be help to buy energy-saving appliances. Advice centers should get more money.

The Left wants to fight poverty with a cross-departmental strategy and a dedicated commission of the state government. At the same time, the social divide between neighborhoods is to be reduced by giving disadvantaged areas the best facilities.

Many people in Bremen are poor. The Left wants a commission against poverty. People affected should have a say there. Poor neighborhoods should get the best schools and services. There should be affordable housing in all neighborhoods.

The Left wants to dissolve the subsidiary "Gesundheit Nord Dienstleistungen" (GND) and bring its employees back into the municipal hospital group GeNo. They are to be paid under the public-sector collective agreement. The party rejects further outsourcing.

Cleaners and kitchen staff work for a subsidiary of the hospitals. They earn less there. The Left wants to dissolve this company. The staff should work directly for the hospitals again. They should get collectively agreed pay.

The Left wants more co-determination to accompany the social-ecological transition. Employees, companies, works councils, and policymakers are to shape change together, and the rights of workers and unions are to grow at the federal level.

The world of work is changing a lot. The Left wants workers to have a say in this. There should be talks within industries. Unions should get more rights. The Left will push for this at the federal level.

The Left wants to keep raising Bremen's state minimum wage until it secures a pension above the poverty line in old age. In the medium term it names at least €15 as the target.

Bremen has its own minimum wage. It applies, for example, to contracts from the state. The Left wants to raise it to at least 15 euros. Then the pension should later be enough to live on.

The Left wants to declare more collective agreements generally binding, for example in hospitality, and to achieve collective bargaining coverage in all public companies and their subsidiaries. A "Fair Working Conditions" unit is to monitor minimum wage and compliance with collective agreements.

Collective agreements set pay and working hours. The Left wants them to apply to more companies. All companies owned by the state should pay by these agreements. A new office should check whether companies follow the rules. Stricter conditions should apply to state contracts.

The Left wants to push back temporary agency work and turn it into regular employment. At the federal level, it advocates largely abolishing agency work and converting mini-jobs into positions with full social insurance.

The Left wants secure jobs for everyone. Temp agency work should hardly exist anymore. Mini-jobs should become normal jobs with social insurance. That way people should not be poor in old age. The Left will push for this at the federal level.

The Left wants to give employees financial security during continuing education. It plans a training allowance of €200 a month and a state living allowance that covers course costs and living expenses for low-skilled workers.

Further training costs time and money. The Left wants to pay 200 euros a month for it. People with little training should get even more help. The state then pays for the course and living costs. That way everyone should be able to learn more.

The Left wants to found a transition company that supports employees in changing occupation or sector. It is to advise, assist, and place them with other employers after retraining.

Some people will soon have to change jobs. The Left wants to set up a new organization for this. It advises and guides people. After retraining, it helps them find a new job. It should help early, not only when a company closes.

The Left wants to create permanent publicly funded jobs in the neighborhoods and remove time limits from existing programs for the long-term unemployed. It also wants better rules on extra earnings and stronger independent counseling for the unemployed.

Some people cannot find work for a long time. The Left wants to create jobs for them that the state pays for. The jobs should be in the neighborhoods. People on benefits should be allowed to earn more on top. There should be a complaints office that is not part of the Jobcenter.

The Left wants to test a four-day, 32-hour week as a pilot project in selected companies and have it scientifically evaluated. Flexible working time models and more childcare are meant to make work and private life easier to combine.

Many people want more time for family and free time. The Left wants to test a four-day week. That means 32 hours of work per week. Some companies will try it out. Researchers then check how well it works. There should also be more childcare.

The Left wants to push back insecure work and bogus self-employment among the solo self-employed. It supports sector-specific minimum fees and model contracts and wants to promote representation for platform workers.

Many people work alone as self-employed. Often they earn too little. The Left wants minimum fees for each sector. A fee is the payment for a job. Delivery riders should also get a group that speaks for them.

The Left wants secure, fair jobs covered by collective agreements in the port companies. Overtime should remain the exception, and negotiated wages should rise with the cost of living.

The Left wants safe jobs in the ports. Workers should be paid under union contracts. Overtime should not be normal. There should be enough staff for that.

The Left wants to upgrade occupations in which especially many women work, such as nursing care. In the party's view, better pay and more staff would reduce overload and involuntary part-time work.

In some jobs, most workers are women. Nursing care is one example. The Left wants higher pay and more staff there. The work should be less stressful.

In the longer term, the Left calls for a 30-hour week with wage compensation as the new standard employment relationship. Shorter hours are meant to distribute care work more fairly and, according to the platform, also help against skilled-labor shortages, burnout and unemployment.

The Left wants shorter working hours. Later, a work week should have only 30 hours. Pay should still be enough to live on. This leaves more time for family and care.

The Left wants to move childcare workers into higher pay grades and improve their working conditions. According to the platform, more than 20 percent of new entrants nationwide leave the profession within the first five years.

Many childcare workers quit early. The work is very stressful. The Left wants to pay them more. They should also get time for preparation and more substitute staff.

The Left wants to develop the state action plan on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities together with those affected and have the state fund it fully. Accessibility is to be achieved faster in all areas.

People with disabilities should be able to live independently. The Left wants to remove barriers in the city faster. Public offices should give information in easy language. Groups that represent people with disabilities should get more money.

The Left wants employees in sheltered workshops for people with disabilities to receive the minimum wage. Vocational training is also to become inclusive, and a benefit for people with hearing impairments is to be introduced.

Many people with disabilities work in special workshops. They get very little money there. The Left wants them to get the minimum wage. They should also be able to learn in regular vocational schools.

The Left wants to fold outsourced public-sector subsidiaries back into their parent organizations. The platform says these subsidiaries employ mostly women, have a wider pay gap and are used to escape collective agreements.

Some city tasks are done by subsidiary companies today. People there often earn less. The Left wants to bring these companies back. Women and men should earn the same for the same work.

The SPD wants to give the state's inspection authorities more staff and expand workplace safety inspections. Five percent of businesses are to be inspected each year. It also wants to examine whether to set up a contact point where workers can report violations of the law.

The SPD wants more inspections in workplaces. The inspections check whether work is safe. Each year, 5 out of 100 businesses should be checked. The authorities should get enough staff for this. There may also be an office where people can report violations.

The SPD sees the public sector, as the state's largest employer, as bearing special responsibility. In the administration and state-owned companies, fixed-term contracts, temp work, mini-jobs, and involuntary part-time work are to be cut back. Job centers are also to place fewer people in temp work.

The state of Bremen is the biggest employer in Bremen. The SPD wants secure jobs there. There should be no more fixed-term contracts without a reason. The state should stop using mini-jobs. Temp work should only be used when there is a short peak in work.

The SPD wants to create jobs for people without vocational qualifications that pay enough to take part in society. To that end, Bremen's Landesmindestlohn (state minimum wage) is to stay in place. Publicly subsidized employment is to give a chance to people who cannot gain a foothold in the labor market.

Some people have no vocational qualification. The SPD wants enough jobs for them too. The pay should be enough to live on. So Bremen's own minimum wage should stay. The state should also support jobs for people who struggle to find work.

The SPD wants to safeguard Bremen's Tariftreue-Gesetz (law requiring contractors to honor collective agreements) through ongoing checks so it is not circumvented. Collective agreements are also to be declared generally binding more often, meaning they apply to all businesses in a sector. Together with employers and unions, it wants to look for ways to do this at the federal level too.

In Bremen, companies that want state contracts must pay union-agreed wages. The SPD wants to keep checking this. Companies should not be able to get around the rule. Wage agreements should also apply to a whole industry more often. The SPD wants to push for this at the federal level too.

The SPD wants to write the Chamber of Employees, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Chamber of Crafts into Bremen's state constitution. The transformation of the economy is to be coordinated from the Rathaus (the mayor's office) and shaped jointly with unions and employers. The program sees a strong partnership between the two sides as a precondition for decent work.

Bremen has three chambers: for employees, for commerce, and for skilled trades. The SPD wants to write them into Bremen's constitution. The mayor's office should lead the change in the economy. Unions and employers should have a say in it.

The SPD wants to keep Bremen's €4,000 bonus for completing advanced vocational training. It would continue to cover not only master craftsperson certificates but also advanced training in fields such as childcare and nursing.

In Bremen, people get 4,000 euros when they finish advanced job training. The SPD wants to keep this. The money is not only for master craftspeople. People in nursing and childcare can get it too.

The SPD wants to found a transition company that supports workers who have to switch industries or occupations. The program argues that jobs will be lost as the economy is restructured and that the standard support tools are not enough.

The economy is changing. Some people will have to change jobs. The SPD wants to set up a new organization for them. It gives advice and helps with the change. It also finds training courses for them.

Employees who go back to earn a vocational qualification would receive €200 a month as an expense allowance. The SPD argues that so far only employers are reimbursed, while the employees themselves bear the effort and extra costs.

Some workers go back to get a job qualification. The SPD wants to give them 200 euros a month. Today only the employer gets money. But the workers also have costs and hard work.

The SPD wants to test a right to further training in a state pilot program and create a Landes-BAföG (state training grant) for low-skilled workers. It is meant for people who want to move up to skilled-worker level independently of their employer and currently get no support.

The SPD wants to test a right to job training in Bremen. The state would pay a new training grant. It is for people without a job qualification. With it, they can become skilled workers.

The SPD wants to use a Bundesrat initiative to raise the national minimum pay for apprentices. If the federal government does not act, Bremen would introduce its own minimum apprentice pay at least equal to the maximum BAföG student aid rate.

Trainees should get more money. The SPD wants a higher minimum pay for trainees in all of Germany. If that does not happen, Bremen should act alone. Then trainees in Bremen get at least 861 euros a month.

The SPD wants to keep the welcome bonus for apprentices and raise it to at least €300. It also plans a relocation grant, more apprentice dormitories and cheaper public transit tickets.

Trainees in Bremen get a welcome payment. The SPD wants to raise it to at least 300 euros. Trainees who move from far away should get money for the move. There should be more housing for trainees. Buses and trains should cost less for young people.

The SPD wants job centers to counsel unemployed people more intensively toward a vocational qualification and expand suitable programs. Unskilled people who start qualification-oriented training when taking a job would get a state bonus of €200 a month.

Many jobless people in Bremen have no job qualification. The SPD wants job centers to advise them better. There should be more courses that lead to a qualification. People who do such training get 200 euros a month.

The SPD wants to extend publicly subsidized jobs for the long-term unemployed beyond the current five-year maximum and create a state program for it. Projects would be located mainly in neighborhoods with many long-term unemployed residents.

Some people are out of work for a very long time. There are subsidized jobs for them, but only for five years. The SPD wants to make these jobs last longer. The state would start a new program for this. The jobs should be in the areas where these people live.

The SPD wants to expand municipal support services for unemployed people and make them easier to access, such as debt and addiction counseling, psychosocial support and childcare. Health promotion would be added as a new municipal service.

Jobless people often have other problems too. For example debt or addiction. The cities offer counseling for this. The SPD wants more of it. Help with health should be added as a new service.

The SPD wants to bring counseling, language support and job placement directly into residential neighborhoods. It argues that many people rarely leave their neighborhood and are reluctant to visit public offices downtown.

Many people do not like going to offices downtown. So the SPD wants to offer advice in the neighborhood. Advisers should also go to the people. There should be more German courses close to home. Job placement should happen there too.

The SPD wants to tackle the skilled-labor shortage with training and continuing education in companies and calls this its highest priority. Vocational training and university study should be seen as equal in society. The platform cites the transformation of the economy and the retirement of the baby boomers as reasons.

Many companies cannot find enough skilled workers. So the SPD wants more training inside companies. Job training should count as much as a university degree. Companies, workers and politicians should work together on this.

The SPD wants to shape the changes that digitalization and automation bring to port work together with employers and unions. Training is meant to prevent a skills shortage, and where tasks disappear, workers should be able to move to other parts of the port. At EU level it calls for a fairness agreement among seaports.

Work in the port is changing because of computers and machines. The SPD wants workers to get training for this. People who lose their task should be able to work elsewhere in the port. In Europe, fair rules should apply to all ports.

The SPD wants to further develop employment conditions at universities in order to attract and retain researchers. Student assistants are to be employed under a collective bargaining agreement, and young researchers are to get reliable career paths.

The SPD wants better jobs at universities. Young researchers should be able to plan their careers. Work and family should fit together better. Students with a job at the university should get a collective agreement. A collective agreement sets pay and working hours for many workers.

The SPD wants students to be paid in the future for mandatory internships in the state's public service. This is meant to make the public sector more attractive early on in order to recruit skilled workers.

Many students have to do an internship. The SPD wants to pay for these internships in the public sector. This also applies to companies that Bremen mostly owns. That way, more young people may want to work for the state later.

The SPD wants to fight poverty mainly through higher incomes. It relies on broader collective bargaining coverage, the minimum wage and better pay in fields such as paid care work.

The SPD says poverty comes from pay that is too low. More companies should pay according to union wage agreements. These agreements set pay and working conditions. Care jobs should also be paid better.

At the federal level, the SPD wants to push for an adequately funded Kindergrundsicherung (basic child benefit), a new way of calculating standard benefit rates and a better basic pension. In Bremen, it plans subsidies for new household appliances for people receiving Bürgergeld (citizen's income) or housing benefits.

The SPD wants to help people with little money more. There should be a good basic child benefit nationwide. Bremen should give money for new home appliances. This is for people who get citizen's income or housing benefits.

The SPD wants to stabilize and expand publicly funded employment for the long-term unemployed. Additional funding routes are meant to keep people from falling back into basic welfare once a program ends.

Some people have been out of work for a very long time. The state pays for special jobs for them. The SPD wants more of these jobs. People should not end up without work again afterward. The jobs should be in poorer neighborhoods.

The SPD wants to enable more people with disabilities to work in the general labor market. The public sector is to lead with a 6 percent quota for severely disabled employees, and the sheltered workshops are to be developed further.

Many people with disabilities work in special workshops. The SPD wants more of them to work in regular companies. In public offices, 6 in 100 employees should be severely disabled. The workshops should change. There should be more companies open to everyone.

The SPD pursues the vision of a 10-minute city in which shops, doctors, transit stops and services can be reached quickly. This is meant to let older people live independently in their familiar surroundings. The "Ältere im Quartier" (older people in the neighborhood) program is to be continued and expanded.

Older people should be able to stay in their neighborhood. Everything important should be close by. That means shops, doctors and transit stops. Paths should be short and free of barriers. The SPD wants to grow the program "Ältere im Quartier."

The SPD wants to evaluate the preventive home visit model and, if successful, turn it into a regular service. The "Organisationsassistenz" (organizational assistance) project is also to be made permanent, and meeting places are to be strengthened to counter loneliness in old age.

Some older people get help too late. That is why there are preventive home visits. The SPD wants to review these visits and keep them if they work. Volunteers should keep helping older people with paperwork. Meeting places should help against loneliness.

The SPD wants higher pay, better working conditions and broader collective bargaining coverage in the social services sector, financed through service fees and public grants. Training and university places in nursing, child care and social work are also to grow noticeably. It seeks a partnership of equals with civil society and welfare associations.

Many people work in care, daycare and social work. The SPD wants them to be paid better. More union wage agreements should apply. These are fixed rules for pay and work. There should be more training and university places. Skilled workers from abroad should also be able to come.

The SPD wants to close the pay gap between women and men. To do so, it aims to raise collective bargaining coverage, tighten the federal Pay Transparency Act and push for a gender equality law covering the private sector.

Women often earn less than men. The SPD wants to change that. More companies should pay union-agreed wages. Companies and public offices should have to check their pay. There should also be an equality law for private companies.

The SPD wants to keep funding community centers, neighborhood centers, and leisure facilities for children and teens, with equal standards in every district. Cultural and sports offerings are to be brought to people where they live. Free Wi-Fi is to be rolled out more widely in public facilities and across the city.

The SPD wants to keep giving money to meeting places in the districts. All districts should be equally well equipped. Culture and sports should come to the neighborhoods. There should be more free Wi-Fi in the city.

The SPD wants to make public-sector jobs more attractive in the competition for skilled workers. This includes more flexible working-time models, good pay with union wage deals applied to civil servants, co-determination and more staff for schools, daycare and climate protection.

The government is looking for skilled workers. So the SPD wants to make government jobs more attractive. Working hours should be more flexible. Civil servants should get the same raises as other public employees. Schools, daycare and climate protection should get more staff.

The SPD wants trainees in the public sector and in publicly owned companies to receive a permanent job as a rule once they finish training. It also wants more dual study programs to recruit young talent.

People who train with the government should be able to stay afterward. The SPD wants permanent jobs for them. This should also apply in public companies. There should also be more dual study programs. These combine study and work.