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

The AfD wants social insurance benefits to be available only after a minimum period of contributions. According to the platform, foreigners seeking protection must prove themselves worthy of help or be deported immediately. The party rejects a Europe-wide social insurance system.

The AfD wants to change the rules for social insurance. Only people who have paid in long enough should get benefits. Foreigners who seek protection should follow the rules. If not, the AfD wants to deport them. The AfD rejects one shared social insurance for all of Europe.

The AfD Saarland wants to replace the employer share of social insurance contributions with a levy on value added. Companies would then contribute to social insurance according to their economic output rather than the number and pay of their employees. The party also calls for a digital tax.

The AfD wants a new levy for companies. It is a levy on the value a company creates. Companies would pay into social insurance based on their output. Today they pay based on how many workers they have and what they earn. The AfD also wants a digital tax.

The AfD wants to create inclusive local communities so that people with disabilities can take part in work and social life on their own terms. Accessibility is to become mandatory for municipalities, and inclusion projects are to receive permanent funding. According to the platform, sheltered workshops remain the central place for participation.

The AfD wants to remove barriers for people with disabilities. Towns and cities should be required to do this. This covers public offices, doctors' offices and buses, for example. Workshops for people with disabilities should stay important. There should also be more suitable jobs.

In light of demographic change, the CDU wants to make better use of the existing workforce potential and above all bring more women into work. Barriers are to be removed, childcare improved, and household services given more support.

The CDU wants more women to be able to work. Daycare should get better. Working hours and workplaces should be more flexible. There is a program for returning to work after family time. The CDU wants to support household help more.

The CDU commits to fair wages, jobs covered by collective agreements, and permanent employment with social insurance as the standard. Temp work should serve only as an entry route and to cover peaks; the long-term unemployed are to keep receiving state programs.

The CDU wants fair pay and steady jobs. People should be able to live on their wages. Temp work should stay the exception. The state will keep running programs for people who have been out of work for a long time.

The CDU wants to make the Saarland a model region for flexible working hours and attractive employers in order to counter the labor shortage. In the state civil service, fixed-term contracts without an objective reason are to end.

The CDU wants companies in the Saarland to be good employers. Working hours should be more flexible. Good companies get a seal. The state should stop giving fixed-term contracts without a reason.

The CDU wants to take stock of loneliness in Saarland and derive a comprehensive strategy from it. The aim is to address causes preventively and show people living alone possible solutions.

Many people feel lonely. This affects young and old. The CDU first wants to study how big the problem is in Saarland. Then it wants to make a plan against it. There should also be a special center for this topic.

The CDU wants to set up a coordination office for volunteering in the social sector and expand funding programs for it. The platform describes volunteering as the backbone of social cohesion.

Many people help others for free. This is called volunteering. The CDU wants a new office that coordinates this help in the social field. There should also be more funding.

The CDU wants many more subsidized jobs in inclusive companies and wants to promote employment in regular businesses. Sheltered workshops and independent day support centers are also to be expanded.

People with disabilities should find work more easily. The CDU wants more supported jobs in companies. It also wants to expand workshops and day support centers. People there should be able to build up a pension too.

The CDU wants to develop support and funding programs so that older people can live independently in their own homes for a long time. Virtual multigenerational houses are to be set up across the state to bring young and old together online.

Older people should be able to live at home for a long time. The CDU wants to create new support for this. There should be online meeting places for young and old. People also learn there how to use digital media.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

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 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.