Overview
- In a Dec. 26 t-online interview, Economics Minister Katherina Reiche reiterated plans for longer working hours, fewer part-time jobs, later retirement and more flexible dismissal rules that would reduce protection for high earners.
- Leading SPD figure Ralf Stegner rejected curbs on dismissal protection and blanket increases to retirement age or weekly hours, while Left leader Sören Pellmann warned the program would overburden workers.
- The employers’ association BDA endorsed Reiche’s direction, calling for more full-time roles and urging the abolition of the pension at 63 without deductions.
- Reiche points to 2024 statistics showing Germany’s average weekly hours at 34.3 versus 36.8 in the EU, with full-time at 40.2 and part-time at 20.9, and she argues Germany works far less than the United States.
- Evidence from the BAuA and AOK links longer hours to poorer health and rising burnout, and international four‑day‑week trials report stable or higher productivity, while the reform remains a proposal without legislation.