Germany’s Economy Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) is pushing for longer working hours and fewer restrictions on dismissal protection to stimulate the economy. Speaking to the news portal t-online on Monday, she called for measures that go beyond what is set out in the coalition agreement. Her proposals immediately drew criticism from the SPD and the Left Party.
“We need to work more overall in Germany,” Reiche said. In particular, she argued that the length of working life must be discussed, “which in practice also means talking about a higher retirement age.” She added that more attractive incentives were needed to encourage people to continue working voluntarily beyond the statutory retirement age.
Reiche also called for a reduction in early retirement. “It cannot be that companies complain about a lack of young talent while at the same time sending well-qualified employees into partial retirement from the age of 61,” she said. In addition, she urged employees to work less part-time and more full-time. “There are many ways to achieve this, for example tax incentives or expanding childcare services,” she said.
“We need to get Germany back into the fast lane,” the CDU politician said, adding that the coalition agreement was not sufficient to achieve this. “For me, the coalition agreement is the basis of our political action, but for the SPD it is the ceiling. We urgently need to raise this ceiling together,” she said.
The minister also called for easing dismissal protection. “We need more flexible dismissal protection that protects the vulnerable but, especially in the high-wage sector, allows companies to reduce staff more quickly when necessary,” Reiche said. This would help companies “adapt more rapidly to new market situations and restructure.”
The proposals were met with sharp criticism from the Social Democrats. “Restrictions on dismissal protection or a blanket increase in the retirement age or weekly working hours come straight out of the mothballs of market-radical social cutback proposals,” SPD MP Ralf Stegner told Der Tagesspiegel. Such measures were “not acceptable to the SPD,” he said.
“These measures would place the burden on those who work hard for our prosperity and often receive far less in return than they deserve,” Stegner warned. He urged Reiche to consistently implement the coalition agreement “instead of putting forward demands that are completely unacceptable to the coalition partner.” He also suggested that the minister should “look instead for a higher contribution from those with the highest incomes and assets.”
Left Party parliamentary leader Sören Pellmann also criticised Reiche’s stance, saying she wanted “people to work themselves to the bone for the profits of a few corporate owners.” Many employees were already working “countless overtime hours,” he said. “Instead of blindly calling for even longer working hours, we need shorter working hours with full wage and staffing compensation,” Pellmann argued.
Pellmann also rejected a higher retirement age, calling it “nothing more than a creeping cut to pensions.” He described Reiche’s “attack on dismissal protection” as “a blatant outrage” and said his party would oppose any form of social cutbacks.
Support for the economy minister came from employer groups. “Reiche is right: Germany needs more full-time work and less part-time work,” said Steffen Kampeter, managing director of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA), speaking to t-online. He also called for abolishing the pension scheme that allows people with at least 45 years of contributions to retire early without deductions, known as the former “pension at 63.”
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