Germany: legislation set to come into force in 2019 (in brief)

As of 1 January 2019, employees in Germany will be entitled to request that their employer put them on part-time hours for a period of between one and 15 years, without providing a specific reason. Such individuals will also have the right to return to full-time work. The entitlement is only applicable to people working in companies with more than 45 employees (see law establishing the right to temporary part-time work – article n°10861). Also from 1 January, all employees whose jobs are threatened by the rise of digitisation will be eligible for public funding for continued training within their company, regardless of their level of training, age or the size of the company. The level of funding, provided by the Federal Employment Agency, will vary according to the size of the company in question. The agency will also, for the first time, provide advice on continued training (see law to bolster continued training – article n° 10920). The same law will also improve the access of workers hired for short-term projects to unemployment insurance and will reduce the size of unemployment insurance contributions. These will fall permanently by 0.4 percentage points and provisionally by another 0.1 percentage points until the end of 2022. This means that from 1 January 2019, the contributions will fall from 3% to 2.5% of gross salary. Meanwhile, the minimum wage in the country which currently stands at €8.84 per hour is set to rise to €9.19 per hour as of 1 January  (see article n°10742). Finally, the country’s Pensions Pact stabilises the level of statutory pension payments at 48% of the average net income and contributions at 20% of gross income, at least until 2025 (see article n°10793).