Welche arbeitsrechtlichen Änderungen plant die GroKo?

The parties CDU/CSU and the SPD recently started coalition negotiations. These negotiations are based on the results of the exploratory talks, which were recorded in the so-called results paper of January 12, 2018. If these plans are put into practice in the next legislative period, there will also be some changes in labor and social law.

We would like to summarize the most important changes below.
1. Adjustment of additional wage costs
The parties intend the following adjustments to the additional wage costs:
On the one hand, parity in health insurance contributions should be restored. This means that – contrary to the current legal situation – the employer and the employee each pay half of the health insurance contributions.
On the other hand, it is planned to reduce the contribution rate for unemployment insurance from currently 3.0 % to 2.7 %.
2. Temporary part-time
Another employment law project worth mentioning is the introduction of temporary part-time work. To this end, some requirements of the part-time and fixed-term employment law should be changed. The current legal situation only provides for a right to a long-term or permanent reduction in working hours in Section 8 TzBfG. The law does not (yet) provide for a right to an increase in working hours and thus a return to full-time work. Rather, in Section 9 TzBfG, the employer is only obliged to give preferential treatment to suitable part-time employees when filling a new position.
As already mentioned above, this regulation – which the coalition parties believe is no longer up-to-date – should be changed. Employees should be entitled to a so-called “right to return to full-time work” under the following conditions:

The employment relationship must have existed for more than six months at the time of the claim.
The claim only applies to companies that generally employ more than 45 employees.
For companies with between 45 and 200 employees, a reasonable limit is introduced, according to which only one person per 15 employees must be granted the right to temporary part-time work.
The employer can also reject the temporary part-time entitlement if the claim is made for less than one year or more than five years.
In addition, the employee can only assert the claim again at the earliest one year after the temporary part-time period already granted.

3. Work on demand
When it comes to on-call work – currently regulated in Section 12 TzBfG – the parties want to implement changes that give the affected employees more planning security. However, no specific requirements are listed in the results paper.
4. Outlook
It remains to be seen whether these plans will be implemented one-to-one. This depends in particular on the approval in the party committees. We will of course keep you updated about further developments.