Germany: the Government is placing employee aspirations at the center of its policy on working time

The “Parental Plus Salary”, a reform of the ‘Law on the reduction of working time to allow for care of dependents’, the right for people on part-time work to return to full time work’… the German Families Ministry and the Ministry for Employment have already initiated, or are going to initiate, no less than three draft laws geared towards enabling employees achieve a better work-life balance. Some employers hold that this new work time flexibility takes workers’ interests excessively into account, and is to the detriment of business interests. Manuela Schleswig (SPD), the Minister for Families disagrees arguing that instead the reforms will assist employees, especially women, to return to their professional activity earlier, which will in turn help businesses overcome the present labor shortage.
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The vision of a ’32 hour working week’ for parents. Manuela Schwesig, the young Families Minister has a vision: to introduce a new model for “work time for families” (Familienarbeitzeit). The new model should lift the burden from young couples generally aged between 25 and 45 who are starting out on a professional career and starting a family or caring for a dependent all at the same time. Her idea is to put a “32 hour working week” in place for young parents that will be part subsidized by th

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