Berlin (dts) – On May 1st, Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) warned of social cuts. “Especially on Labor Day, one cannot emphasize enough: I will not allow workers' rights to be slashed and the welfare state to be torn down,” Heil told the Tagesspiegel (Wednesday edition).
Heil reiterated his call for an expansion of the collective bargaining partnership. “The task remains to further strengthen the collective bargaining partnership in Germany,” he said. Where there are collective agreements, “working conditions and income are on average better”. That's why he's fighting for a federal collective bargaining law.
The labor market came through the crisis robustly, said Heil. “We need a realistic view, but we must not talk the country into ruin. Never before have so many people been employed as today, we have the lowest inflation in three years, and wage increases in 2023 were well over four percent.”
