The Federal Council will deal with several decisions of the Federal Government on Friday. He had already given the green light for the Bundeswehr special fund and the minimum wage increase. Now the sanctions for Hartz IV recipients are suspended.
The sanctions for breaches of duty by Hartz IV recipients are largely suspended for one year. The Federal Council gave the go-ahead for this federal government project on Friday. The Bundestag had already passed the regulation to amend the Social Security Code in May.
With the new law, there are sanctions for Hartz IV recipients only in the event of extraordinary failure to report – and then only at a level of ten percent instead of up to 30 percent of the salary. This means that anyone who misses an appointment at the job center must expect a corresponding deduction. The refusal to accept a job, on the other hand, should no longer lead to a sanction.
The suspension of the Hartz IV sanctions, which should apply for one year, is the precursor to the citizens’ allowance planned by the traffic light coalition, which is to replace the previous Hartz IV system in the coming year. In the course of the citizens’ allowance, which the SPD, Greens and FDP had agreed in their coalition agreement, the obligations of the beneficiaries to cooperate and any future sanctions are then to be newly regulated.
The Bavarian Labor Minister Ulrike Scharf (CSU) sharply criticized the project in the Bundesrat. “The law breaks with a tried and tested system,” she said. “It overrides the golden rule of the welfare state principle: support and challenge.” The new regulation sends out a “fundamentally wrong signal”: “No matter what you do: the job center pays.” This is “at the expense of the taxpayers”.
Millions of workers in Germany will receive higher wages from October 1st. On Friday in Berlin, the Federal Council approved the increase in the statutory minimum wage to 12 euros per hour from October 1st. With the Chamber of States refraining from appealing to the Mediation Committee, the increase in the minimum wage limit cleared the last hurdle in legislation.
The gross minimum wage is currently EUR 9.82. On July 1, it will rise to EUR 10.45 per hour, and then on October 1 to EUR 12 per hour. At the same time, the limit for mini-jobs in October will rise from 450 to 520 euros per month.
The Bundestag had passed the bill by Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) a week earlier. The draft law assumes that there are currently around 6.2 million employees with an hourly wage of less than 12 euros. Later, the Minimum Wage Commission made up of employers and employees will again be responsible for setting the lower wage limit. The next adjustment is scheduled for January 1, 2024.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had made raising the lower wage limit a core promise of the federal election campaign. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) said in the Bundesrat that wages should be so high that you can live with them sensibly and ultimately get an adequate pension. In addition, the goal must also be that more employees receive a collective wage.
The Bundesrat has finally cleared the way for billions to be invested in the Bundeswehr. The state chamber voted with a two-thirds majority for an amendment to the Basic Law, just as the Bundestag did a week ago.
The billion-euro program to upgrade the Bundeswehr can start. After the Bundestag, the Bundesrat also decided on the necessary amendment to the Basic Law on Friday. This allows loans of 100 billion euros to be taken out, bypassing the debt brake, in order to better equip the armed forces.
A new Article 87a is included in the Basic Law. It regulates that loans of 100 billion euros for a special fund can be taken out for the Bundeswehr without the debt brake. The money will be used to buy new planes, helicopters, ships, tanks and ammunition in the coming years. But it is also about equipment such as night vision devices and radios.
The German government is reacting to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Years of savings in the Bundeswehr and its focus on foreign missions have led to the fact that the troops today have significant deficits in national and alliance defense. Tanks, planes and ships are partly outdated or not ready for use. This is also painfully evident when it comes to the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine. According to the official statement, the Bundeswehr has hardly anything that it can do without and which it can relinquish.
