German trade union Ver.di has encouraged the German coalition to use the appointment of Alexander Schweitzer as the head of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs as an opportunity to carry out a fairness review of labour market, social and pensions policies.

Ver.di chairman, Frank Werneke, stressed that what Germany needs is not a “business as usual” approach, but policies that are worker-friendly and socially just.

“Given the massive resistance from the Union to socially balanced labour market and social policies – which Bärbel Bas has already had to contend with – the priority now must be to fundamentally revise the planned reforms in the interests of workers and pensioners,” he said.

Specifically, he said the “bitter pills must be removed from the pension package”, including abandoning the plan to raise the state pension age, maintaining the pension for those with particularly long insurance records (45 years of contributions), stabilising and increasing the pension level to 48 per cent beyond 2031, and the option to retain the ‘blocked’ partial retirement scheme.

Werneke added that the scrapping of the eight-hour working day must be taken off the table, while the planned expansion of fixed-term contracts without objective grounds must be scrapped.

“Ver.di is always open to dialogue, and we look forward to constructive cooperation for the benefit of employees, pensioners, students and everyone who relies on a functioning welfare state,” Werneke concluded.

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