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

The AfD wants to meet the need for skilled workers primarily from the domestic workforce rather than through immigration alone. Taxes and contributions are to fall, unemployed people are to be trained, and the trades promoted more. Public-sector jobs are to be cut, except for police and teachers.

Saxony needs skilled workers. The AfD wants to find them at home first. Work should pay more because taxes go down. People without jobs should learn a trade. The state should have fewer jobs. This does not apply to police and teachers.

The AfD wants to make public offices and their procedures accessible and raise compensation payments for blind, deaf and severely disabled people. Companies are to be encouraged to hire severely disabled people through tax relief rather than payments for missing the quota. It also plans a funding program for sign language.

The AfD wants public offices to be open to everyone. Blind and deaf people should get more money to make up for disadvantages. Companies should hire more people with disabilities. In return they should pay less tax. Companies should not pay a penalty if they hire too few. More people should learn sign language.

The AfD wants to pay Bürgergeld (citizen's income) only to Germans and people of equal status who have lived legally in Germany for at least five years. Benefit rates are to follow actual price trends, and recipients who do not cooperate are to face tougher sanctions. In the party's view, work otherwise does not pay and the benefit attracts immigration.

The AfD wants to change Bürgergeld, a basic welfare payment. Only Germans and people with equal status should get it. They must have lived legally in Germany for five years. People who do not cooperate should face harder penalties. The AfD says work must pay more than welfare.

The AfD wants the duration of Arbeitslosengeld I (insurance-based unemployment benefit) to depend on how long someone worked before. Those who paid in for many years are to be entitled for longer. The party sees today's rule as a slight to long-term contributors.

People who lose their job first get unemployment benefit. The AfD wants people who worked a long time to get it longer. Today it usually lasts only one year. The AfD thinks this is unfair.

The BSW wants to implement the Bundesteilhabegesetz (Federal Participation Act) and tailor benefits more closely to the individual. The federal government should cover the extra costs to relieve municipalities. Daycare, schools, youth services, and the labor market should become inclusive.

People with disabilities should be able to take part everywhere. The BSW wants to carry out the law on this. The federal government should pay the extra costs. Daycare, schools, and jobs should be open to all.

The BSW wants municipalities to stop closing social facilities and to open new ones. It also rejects further job cuts in public administration and calls for more staff. The party says this would strengthen social cohesion, especially in structurally weak areas.

The BSW wants to keep meeting places, pools and sports centers open. New ones should be built too. Public offices, schools and care homes should get more staff. Towns should get long-term money for this.

The BSW wants to make vocational training more financially attractive so that the need for skilled workers is met by young people at home. It rejects worldwide labor immigration as a solution, arguing that it pushes down wages and harms the countries of origin.

The BSW wants trainees to earn more money. This should get more young people into training. The party does not want to bring in workers from all over the world. It says this pushes wages down.

The BSW wants collective agreements to apply to all employers in far more industries in Saxony. Through the Bundesrat, it wants to lower the threshold for this in the federal Posted Workers Act.

A collective agreement sets pay and working hours. The BSW wants it to cover all firms in more industries. A federal law should change for this. Saxony should propose that in the Bundesrat.

The CDU wants to promote modern forms of work, especially outside the big cities, and to see co-working spaces set up across the state. Employees in rural areas are meant to save commuting time this way.

The CDU wants new places to work in rural areas. People can work there without driving to their company. This is called co-working. It saves people time on the way to work.

The CDU rejects measures that reduce working time, including five days of Bildungsurlaub (paid educational leave). It commits to a 40-hour week and points to the state of the labor market.

The CDU does not want people to work less. It supports 40 hours of work per week. It is against five days off for training. This is called educational leave. The CDU says there are already too few workers.

The CDU wants to push at the federal level for replacing Bürgergeld (citizen's income) with a new basic income support. It is to follow the principle of “Fordern und Fördern” (demand and support).

Bürgergeld is money from the state for people with no income. The CDU wants to replace it. There should be a new basic support instead. The state should help people but also ask something of them.

The CDU wants to increase the participation of people with disabilities in working life. To do so, the Integrationsamt (integration office) and specialist integration services are to carry more weight, and workplaces are to become easier to access.

The CDU wants more people with disabilities to be able to work. Certain offices and services help them with this. These offices should become more important. Workplaces and information should be easier to reach.

The CDU wants to strengthen youth work and youth welfare services, give older people more ways to take part in society and working life, and remove barriers for people with disabilities. It bases this on demographic change and cohesion between the generations.

The CDU wants to support young people better. For this there should be good youth work. Older people should be able to keep taking part, also at work. Obstacles for people with disabilities should go.

The CDU wants to create a "Service for Saxony" aimed at everyone who finishes school in Saxony. It is meant to let young people contribute to society while gaining first experience of working life.

The CDU wants to start a service for Saxony. It is meant for young people after school. They can do something for others there. They also get to know jobs.

The Greens want to update Saxony's Inclusion and Participation Act and launch a "decade of accessibility." Public buildings, websites, schools and rural infrastructure are to become barrier-free faster. Assistance and self-determination for people with disabilities are to be guaranteed.

The Greens want fewer barriers for people with disabilities. Government buildings and websites should be usable by everyone. Daycare centers and schools should also be rebuilt. A law on this should be rewritten. People with disabilities should get good personal assistance.

The Greens want to double the hiring quota for people with disabilities in the state's public service from five to ten percent. Moving from sheltered workshops into the regular labor market is to become easier, with fair pay. The state is meant to set an example for inclusive employment.

The Greens want more jobs for people with disabilities. The state should hire twice as many of them as now. Moving from a sheltered workshop to a regular company should be easier. Pay should be fair.

The Greens want to counter loneliness in old age with meeting places, counseling at home and mentoring between young and old. Older people would also get voluntary and flexible ways to keep contributing their experience.

Many old people are lonely. The Greens want to create places where people can meet. Examples are mobile cafés or community gardens. Advisers should also come to people's homes. People who care for relatives should get more help.

The Greens want Saxony's public procurement law to ensure that only companies bound by collective agreements receive public contracts. Compliance with the minimum wage, social protection and workplace safety is to be checked permanently. Collective bargaining coverage and worker participation in Saxony are also to grow.

The Greens want the state to give contracts only to companies with a collective agreement. A collective agreement sets pay and working conditions. Authorities should check the minimum wage and workplace safety. The Greens also support works councils.

The Greens support general minimum fees for services billed by time. At the federal level, they want to push for stronger social security for solo self-employed people.

The Greens want to help self-employed people. There should be a lowest allowed fee for their work. People who work alone for themselves should be better protected.

The Left demands a statutory minimum wage of 15 euros and justifies this with higher prices. In the platform's view, this would prevent old-age poverty and comply with the EU minimum wage directive.

The Left wants to raise the minimum wage to 15 euros an hour. The reason is that prices have gone up. The party says this keeps people from being poor when they are old. It says an EU rule also supports this.

The Left wants a new procurement law under which the state only hires firms that pay collectively agreed wages and meet social and ecological standards. More collective agreements are also to be declared generally binding. The aim is higher collective bargaining coverage in Saxony, whose weakness the platform cites as a reason for low pay.

The state should only give contracts to companies that pay union-agreed wages. These are wages that unions and employers have negotiated. More wage agreements should apply to all companies in a sector. Companies owned by the state should also pay these wages.

The Left wants to end fixed-term contracts without objective reason and turn mini-jobs into regular positions with social insurance. It adds a maximum working week of 40 hours, five days of educational leave a year and home office where feasible. The party sets this against calls for longer working hours.

The Left wants to ban temporary contracts that have no reason. Mini-jobs should become normal jobs with social insurance. Nobody should have to work more than 40 hours a week. Workers should get 5 days off a year for education.

The Left wants to abolish Bürgergeld (citizen's income) and replace it with a minimum income without sanctions, set according to the at-risk-of-poverty threshold. Nobody should have to live on less than 1,200 euros a month. The party argues that fear of social decline weakens employees' bargaining position.

The Left wants to replace Bürgergeld, the basic welfare payment. There should be a minimum income without penalties. Every person should have at least 1,200 euros a month. Poor retirees should also be allowed to keep 15,000 euros in savings.

The Left wants to open the way into the regular labor market for people with disabilities. Sheltered workshops are to be reformed and pay at least the statutory minimum wage; through the Bundesrat, Saxony is to push for full employee status for workshop workers. Public contracts are to be linked to inclusion.

People with disabilities should find regular work more easily. In sheltered workshops they should get at least the minimum wage. They should have the same rights as other workers. A new office and a job board should help with the search.

The Left wants to give workers in sheltered workshops for people with disabilities more say and to check more strictly whether the workshops place people in the regular labor market. Companies that do not hire people with disabilities would pay a higher Ausgleichsabgabe (compensation levy).

Some people with disabilities work in special workshops. The Left wants to give them more say there. Companies with no disabled workers should pay more money. This payment is called the compensation levy.

The Left wants to ease the labor shortage by giving more people access to work: immigrants, women, people with disabilities and the unemployed. To that end, job centers would employ trained social workers.

The Left wants to bring more people into work. Immigrants should be allowed to work in their own profession sooner. Women should be able to work as much as they want. Unemployed people should get more help with training and returning to work.

The Left supports nationwide sector-level collective agreements in the skilled trades and wants more agreements to be declared generally binding. This is meant to align working and living conditions across Germany and keep the trades attractive.

A collective agreement sets pay and hours for many businesses. In the skilled trades it often applies only to guild members. The Left wants agreements that apply to every business in a sector. This should raise pay in the trades.

The Left calls for amending the Works Constitution Act so that workforces have a vote on their company's major investments. In its view, the transformation of industry should serve employees' interests, and employees should also become co-owners of their companies.

Today companies decide alone how to spend their money. The Left wants to change that. Workers should have a vote on large spending decisions. They should also be able to own part of their company.

The Left expects economic change to alter the demand for skilled workers and to require rapid retraining of large parts of the workforce. It wants scholarships for shortage occupations and for training that employees choose themselves, plus financial help from the Federal Employment Agency for small and medium-sized businesses.

The economy is changing. Many workers need to learn new things. The Left wants to award scholarships for this. A scholarship is money for training. Small businesses should get money from the employment agency for training their staff.

The Left wants to strengthen municipal social policy with higher state subsidies, a network of social counseling centers and permanently guaranteed budgets for defined social areas. In rural areas, shops and other facilities should be subsidized if they take on tasks for the common good.

The Left wants advice centers for social benefits everywhere. People get help with applications there. Towns and districts should get fixed money for social tasks. Village shops should also get money from the state.

The Left wants to modernize Saxony's Landesblindengeldgesetz (state blindness allowance act) and raise benefits for blind, visually impaired, deafblind and deaf people as well as severely disabled children. The amounts are to rise each year with inflation plus one percentage point.

Blind and deaf people get money from the state. The Left wants to raise these amounts. Blind people should get 600 euros a month. The money should rise every year with prices. More people with severe hearing loss should qualify.

The Left wants to establish a statutory right to free debt counseling, with the length of counseling based on need. It also wants to expand consumer protection, including food inspections, access to cash and independent advice services.

The Left wants free advice for people in debt. Everyone should have a right to it. The advice should last as long as needed. Food should also be checked more closely. Savings banks should offer cash everywhere.

The Left wants to make vocational training more attractive, mainly through minimum pay of 80 percent of the collectively agreed wage. It also calls for ending school fees, a free Deutschlandticket and further relief for apprentices.

Apprentices should get more money. The Left wants at least 80 percent of the union wage. School fees should end. The Deutschlandticket should be free for apprentices. There should be enough dorm places.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

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.