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

The AfD wants to activate and train unemployed and underemployed people in Lower Saxony rather than rely on immigration. It does not see a general shortage of skilled workers. It also wants to reduce the emigration of well-trained Germans.

The AfD says many people in Lower Saxony have no job. These people should get training and work. So the AfD sees no need for immigrants with little training. Well-trained Germans should stay in the country.

The AfD wants people who have paid in for many years to receive Arbeitslosengeld I (unemployment insurance benefit) for longer. Hartz IV recipients should get into regular jobs through more training and support and be allowed to earn more on the side.

People who worked for a long time should get unemployment benefit for longer. That is what the AfD wants. People on Hartz IV should get more help to find work. They should also be allowed to earn more extra money.

The AfD wants temporary agency workers to receive the same pay as comparable permanent staff from their first day of work. Flexibility for employers must not come solely at workers' expense.

Temp workers work for a while at another company. The AfD wants them to earn as much as the regular staff there. This should apply from the very first day.

The AfD endorses minimum wages as a tool against wage dumping, which it attributes to EU free movement and the immigration of low-skilled people. Temporary agency workers are also to receive a flexibility bonus.

The AfD supports the minimum wage. It should protect people from very low pay. Temp workers should get extra pay on top of their wage. Temp workers are hired by one firm and lent to others.

The AfD wants targeted training for unemployed people and Hartz IV recipients, coordinated with small and medium-sized businesses. Employers would get integration subsidies that start high and then decline. In the party's view, current measures miss what the labor market needs.

The AfD wants better training for people without work. Small and mid-sized firms should have a say. Firms get money when they hire and train jobless people. The money is high at first and then goes down.

The AfD wants job centers to stop pushing older recipients of Arbeitslosengeld II (basic unemployment benefit) into early retirement. Older employees are to be kept in the labor market as skilled workers, including through training and more flexible hours.

Job centers often send older jobless people into early retirement. The AfD wants to stop this. Older people should be able to work longer if they want. There should be more training and flexible hours.

The AfD calls for measures against the emigration of well-trained Germans and wants to stop the immigration of low-skilled people. It argues that these professionals were educated at public expense here but pay taxes and contributions abroad.

Many well-trained Germans move abroad. The AfD wants them to stay. It wants to improve conditions in Germany for that. People with little training should no longer immigrate.

The CDU wants to invest heavily in workplace continuing education and link it more closely with vocational schools, universities, and adult education. Retraining is meant to secure jobs amid change driven by digitalization, climate protection, and aging.

The CDU wants to put a lot of money into training at work. People should be able to learn new things on the job. Universities and vocational schools should take part more. This should keep jobs safe.

The CDU wants to encourage part-time arrangements for the transition to retirement so that older people can stay in work longer. Returning to a job after time spent raising a family is also to receive targeted support.

Older people should be able to work longer if they want. For this, the CDU wants part-time options before retirement. People who want to work again after family time should get help. This includes advice and training.

The CDU wants to merge the educational leave law and the adult education law into a new statute and set up state funding for a second career chance. Employees are to find it much easier to take part in continuing education, especially alongside their jobs.

The CDU wants a new law for training during working life. It should replace two old laws. Workers should be able to join courses more easily. The state should also give money for a second career.

The CDU wants to support new working-time models, working from home and coworking while keeping jobs with social insurance at the core. At the same time, conditions for contract workers and temporary agency workers are to improve.

The CDU wants to make flexible working hours possible. Working from home should become easier. Regular jobs with social insurance should stay important. Temporary workers should get better conditions.

The CDU wants more companies to be covered by collective agreements and wants to adapt workplace co-determination to a changing world of work. Employees should also be able to take a larger stake in their companies and share in their success.

The CDU wants more companies to pay agreed union wages. Works councils should become stronger. Workers should be able to share in their company's success.

The CDU wants stricter and more prompt workplace safety inspections, especially at particularly hazardous sites. It cites the meat industry as an example of poor conditions and also wants to act more firmly against undeclared work.

The CDU wants to make workplaces safer. Authorities should check more strictly, mostly in dangerous workplaces. The CDU names the meat industry as a bad example. It also wants to fight illegal work harder.

The CDU plans a state program for people who are hard to place in jobs. It sees them as untapped workers who can help companies in the state stay competitive.

Some people have a hard time finding a job. The CDU wants to help them with a state program. This includes people who have been out of work for a long time. Companies need these workers.

The CDU wants to pay civil servants adequately and prevent the lowest pay grades from being close to the level of basic welfare benefits. Bonuses for unfavorable working hours and strenuous duties are to rise. This is meant to keep the state attractive as an employer.

The CDU wants to pay civil servants fairly. Even those with low pay should earn clearly more than basic welfare. People who work at night or on weekends should get higher bonuses. All state employees should be able to lease a bike.

The CDU regards inclusion as a human right and wants to give people with disabilities more participation in housing, culture, health care, and working life. It plans funding programs for accessible housing and more support for sheltered workshops.

People with disabilities should be able to take part everywhere. The CDU wants to fund more homes without barriers. Doctors' offices and hospitals should also be easier to enter. Workshops for people with disabilities should get more money. Moving into a regular job should become easier.

The CDU wants to support people who have fallen into hardship through illness, economic trouble, or family crises. It plans help for homeless people, more support for food banks, and expanded debt and psychosocial counseling.

Some people lose their home or have large debts. The CDU wants to help them. Towns and cities should get support to help homeless people. Food banks should get more support. There should be more counseling for debt and mental health problems.

The CDU wants older people to be able to live independently in their neighborhoods for a long time. Age-appropriate housing, barrier-free renovations and support services are to be funded. An action plan against loneliness is also planned.

Old people should be able to stay in their neighborhood for a long time. The CDU wants to support fitting housing. Old houses should be rebuilt without barriers. There should be a plan against loneliness.

The Greens want to counter the shortage of skilled workers with a drive for employment and training. They also want work in Lower Saxony to be paid fairly.

Lower Saxony does not have enough skilled workers. The Greens want to bring more people into work. They also want more training. And work should be paid fairly.

The Greens want more trade businesses to pay according to collective agreements so that trained workers stay in their profession. They also want to reform maternity protection for self-employed women in order to strengthen women in the trades.

Many tradespeople later move to other jobs. The platform says low pay is one reason. So the Greens want more collectively agreed wages in the trades. These are wages that unions and employers set together. Self-employed women should also get better maternity protection.

The Greens want to accompany the ecological and social restructuring of the economy so that it is socially fair. An impact assessment, ongoing monitoring and advice for employees and works councils are meant to serve this. The party also wants to end discrimination in the labor market and the evasion of social insurance obligations.

The economy is changing because of climate protection. Some jobs disappear and new ones appear. The Greens want to watch this change closely. They want to advise and protect workers. Nobody should be treated unfairly at work.

The Greens are aiming for a continuing education law. Employees are to be released from work for training, be paid appropriately during that time and be entitled to return to their job afterward. The platform justifies this with rapidly changing skill requirements during structural change.

The Greens want a law on job training. Workers should get time off for courses. They keep getting paid during this time. Afterward they may return to their job. This way everyone can keep learning at work.

The Greens want a more active state labor market policy. They plan a public employment sector, a state program against long-term unemployment and secure funding for independent advice for the unemployed. The platform points to more than 200,000 unemployed people alongside staff shortages in many fields.

More than 200,000 people in Lower Saxony have no job. The Greens want to help them more. The state should create jobs with fair conditions itself. People without work should get good advice. This advice should not come from the job center.

The Greens want to reduce poverty in the state together with unions, associations, civic initiatives and municipalities. They plan free counseling for tenants, people in debt and those in consumer insolvency, and easier participation for people with little money. The platform names a basic income as a long-term prospect and supports research on it.

The Greens want fewer people to be poor. People with debts or rent problems should get free advice. The Greens are also thinking about a basic income. That is money every person gets from the state. Researchers should check whether this works.

The Greens are aiming for a labor market in which people with and without disabilities work together. State agencies are to hire more severely disabled people, the compensatory levy is to rise and sheltered workshops are to become easier to leave. In the long run there is to be a right to a job in inclusive companies.

People with and without disabilities should work together. State offices should hire more people with disabilities. Companies that hire too few should pay more. Moving from a sheltered workshop to a regular company should get easier.

The Greens want more employees in Lower Saxony to be paid under collective agreements and the low-wage sector to shrink. Public contracts and business subsidies are to be tied by law to collectively agreed pay, a procurement minimum wage, and environmental and social standards. The platform justifies this with better wages and higher public revenue.

The Greens want more people to be paid under union wage agreements. Such an agreement sets pay and hours for many companies. The state should only give contracts to companies that pay these wages. The companies must also follow rules for the environment and for workers. Small companies should be able to bid more easily.

The Greens want stricter checks on standards for good work and penalties for violations. Trade inspection offices are to get more staff and clear responsibilities so they can inspect at least five percent of businesses a year by 2026. The platform points to an inspection rate of 0.6 percent in 2020.

Companies must follow rules that protect workers. So far the state rarely checks this. The Greens want many more inspections. The offices should get more staff for this. Inspections should also come without warning.

The Greens want to give unions and works councils stronger backing. Obstruction of workplace co-determination is to be prosecuted quickly and competently, with police and judicial authorities building up the necessary expertise.

The Greens want to support works councils. A works council speaks for the workers in a company. Some companies block works councils. Police and courts should deal with such cases faster. They should get more expert knowledge for this.

The Greens want to establish an entitlement to free debt counseling that is open to everyone. Debt and insolvency counseling centers in Lower Saxony are to receive reliable funding.

Some people have more debt than they can pay. The Greens want to help them. Everyone should have a right to free advice. The advice centers should get secure funding.

The Greens want to reduce homelessness significantly through a state program. It would fund Housing First projects, in which homeless people first get an apartment along with social support. Specialized offices are to prevent people from losing their homes in the first place.

The Greens want fewer people to live on the street. A state program should help. Homeless people should get a home first. After that they get help with other problems. Advice offices should help before someone loses their home.

The Greens want to tackle the shortage of daycare staff with better pay, a training wage that prevents poverty, and programs for career changers and returners. The party rejects lowering training standards.

Daycare centers lack trained staff. The Greens want to pay them better. Trainees should also earn enough to live on. People from other jobs should be able to switch to daycare more easily. But the training should not get worse.

The Greens advocate a Bundesteilhabegeld (federal participation allowance) to offset disadvantages caused by a disability. Until this is bindingly regulated, the party wants to keep and further develop the Landesblindengesetz (state law on benefits for blind people).

People with disabilities should get money from the federal government. It is called Bundesteilhabegeld. It should make up for disadvantages caused by the disability. Until then, the state law for blind people stays. The Greens want to improve this law.

The Greens want to improve working conditions at universities and create permanent positions for permanent tasks. University funding is to be restructured for this purpose, and the federal law on fixed-term academic contracts is to be reformed.

Many people at universities only have short-term contracts. The Greens want more permanent jobs. The state should fund universities differently for this. A federal law should change too.

The Greens want to overcome child poverty and secure participation for all children. At the state level they plan dedicated social reporting on children, more money for social facilities and more help for municipalities. They welcome the federal Kindergrundsicherung (basic child allowance).

Many children in Lower Saxony are poor. The Greens want to change that. They want to give more money to youth centers and social services. Towns and cities should get more help.

The Greens want to introduce a statewide Niedersachsenpass (Lower Saxony pass) for people who receive social benefits or have low incomes. It is meant to ease access to culture, sports and local transit and to bundle discounts.

The Greens want to introduce a Lower Saxony pass. People with little money get the pass. It makes it easier to visit museums or join a sports club. Buses and trains should also be cheaper for them.

The Greens want to improve conditions for migrant workers, for example in slaughterhouses, care, logistics, construction and agriculture. Minimum standards are to be defined, inspections expanded and advice centers permanently funded.

Many people from abroad work in slaughterhouses, in care or in construction. The Greens say their conditions are often bad. There should be fixed minimum rules and more inspections. Advice centers should help them in their own language.

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.

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 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 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.

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 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 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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.