(de-news.net) – Criticism has surfaced around a proposal to abolish the general statutory entitlement to part-time employment. The initiative, advanced by the Mittelstands- und Wirtschaftsunion (MIT), is scheduled for debate at the CDU’s federal party conference at the end of February and would mark a substantial shift in the existing labor law framework. According to media accounts, the MIT seeks to condition access to part-time work on the presence of a narrowly defined “special justification.” Under this approach, legal protection would be withdrawn from voluntary part-time employment absent care-related responsibilities, with acceptable grounds limited to raising children, providing care for relatives, as well as undertaking further education. The proposal is explicitly framed against concerns that voluntary reductions in working hours diminish contributions to the social security system while allowing workers to retain full access to collective benefits.
Within the CDU itself, the initiative has exposed clear lines of disagreement, illustrating both internal contestation and broader democratic debate. Dennis Radtke, head of the party’s social wing, has publicly cautioned against departing from the CDU’s long-standing commitment to individual choice and flexibility in employment arrangements. From his perspective, confining part-time work to predefined social purposes would inevitably require the state to determine which family constellations, child age thresholds, or degrees of care dependency qualify as legitimate. Such judgments, Radtke argued, should remain within the autonomy of households rather than being codified by public authorities. He further stressed that if the objective is to encourage greater uptake of full-time employment, policy efforts should focus on strengthening childcare and eldercare infrastructure, deficiencies in which currently constrain many workers’ real options.
Complex realities undermine case for rolling back statutory rights, opponents argue
Opposition to the proposal has also come from outside the governing party. Prominent representatives of the SPD, the Green Party, and Die Linke have warned that rolling back established labor rights risks weakening social cohesion and misrepresenting the realities of contemporary working life. In their assessment, the notion of requiring employees to justify their choice of part-time work is inconsistent with a modern labor market, particularly given the prevalence of non-linear careers and care responsibilities. They contend that such an approach effectively shifts responsibility onto individuals for structural problems rooted in policy shortcomings or inadequate workplace conditions.
MIT chair Gitta Connemann has justified the initiative by emphasizing the principle that individuals who are able to work more hours should do so, while social benefits should be reserved for exceptional circumstances rather than routine lifestyle preferences. While acknowledging that part-time employment remains both necessary and appropriate in cases involving family responsibilities, health considerations, or caregiving, she has argued that voluntary reductions in working time should not be permanently financed by the welfare state. This position is closely linked, in her reasoning, to persistent skills shortages and the perceived need to mobilize additional labor capacity within the economy.
Under current German labor law, employees are generally entitled to reduce their working hours once an employment relationship has lasted more than six months and the employer has a workforce exceeding fifteen employees, provided no overriding operational reasons exist. Despite the fact that the share of part-time workers reached a record level of roughly 40 percent in 2025, research by the Institute for Employment Research indicates that total labor input has not declined during the same period, as part-time employees now work more hours on average than in earlier times. Against this empirical backdrop, the MIT proposal stands out as the most far-reaching challenge to the existing regulatory framework to date, even though calls to raise overall working time have resurfaced periodically over recent years from both conservatives and liberals.
