Germany: Labor Minister gives details on draft reforms aiming to meet the challenges of the digital transformation including boosting lifelong training and more labor flexibility

During a conference held in Berlin on 29 November, a year and a half after sounding the starting gun to ‘national dialogue on the future of work in the digital age, the Minister for Labor and Social Affairs, Andrea Nahles presented the ‘White Book on Work 4.0’, which takes up the conclusions from this major consultation project and details its own set of solutions. The Social Democrat is proposing making the law on working time more flexible for a two-year trial period as a means of meeting both businesses’ and employees’ wishes for flexibility. However such derogations will need to be incorporated into collective agreements. The Minister also intends to boost lifelong training, and to this end intends to broaden the scope of the Employment Agencies’ competences, which will be tasked with advising all employees on which training programs to undertake. The Minister is currently putting the White Book forward for government approval.