Business wing of Christian Democrats aims to scrap legal right to fewer hours, saying people should need permission
The business wing of Germany’s leading Christian Democratic Union party is proposing a ban on the legal entitlement to work part-time, arguing that those wishing to work fewer hours should have to acquire special permission to do so.
Currently, every employee in Europe’s largest economy has a fundamental right to carry out part-time work, with many, particularly women, often needing to do so for reasons relating to childcare or looking after elderly relatives.
But the powerful CDU grouping that represents Germany’s small- and medium-sized enterprises has said that as the economy is suffering from a lack of skilled workers, no one should have a legal entitlement to do what it refers to as “lifestyle part-time work”.
“Those who can work more should work more,” the business wing’s chair, Gitta Connemann, told the news magazine Stern, which obtained a leaked copy of the motion.
