Germany: partial unemployment, social partnerships, time savings accounts… Labor Minister presents his reform projects

On 20 September 2019, a year after having commenced a nationwide ‘dialogue on the future’ for Labor and the Welfare State that that was undertaken with involvement from the general public, subject matter experts, and social partner representatives, the Labor and Social Affairs Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) has used the results of this consultation as the basis upon which to formulate a series of proposals, which, inter alia, include broader partial unemployment provisions coupled with training, an extension to time savings accounts, measures strengthening the social partners, and the prospect of introducing a right to teleworking. Most of these projects go beyond the contents of the contract struck within the grand coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), its Christian Social Union (CSU) sister party and center-left coalition partner Social Democratic Party (SPD). At a time when the outlook for the coalition has never been more uncertain, the CDU wing has criticized the SPD for prematurely pushing its electoral campaign. Nonetheless, some of the project elements could soon find themselves written into draft legislation.