Overview
- Markus Söder urges a general extension of lifetime working time to shore up Germany’s pension financing under demographic pressure.
- He calls for legal and structural changes so people work more hours per week and year, pointing to Switzerland as a comparison.
- Söder proposes lifetime working-time accounts to raise total work over a career without requiring every individual to extend their entire working life.
- He advocates reintroducing waiting days before continued pay during illness and moving the medical certificate requirement to the third day.
- He supports part-day sick leave based on Scandinavian practice and wants to end five-day telephone sick notes introduced in 2023.