According to the German economy minister Katherina Reiche Germany must work longer and more. "Demographic changes and further increase in life expectancy make it unavoidable to extend working time," said CDU politician in an interview with "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung".
She started a storm
"In the long run, it is impossible to keep a situation where we only work for 2 thirds of adult life, and the remainder of us spend 1 3rd of our retirement," Reiche said. besides many people have ignored demographic change for a long time. "We gotta work more and longer," stressed the Minister of Economy.
Many people work in jobs that require quite a few physical effort. However, there are those who would like and could work longer.
According to business relations, their employees in the US work 1,800 hours a year, while in Germany only 1 340. As Reiche criticised, "In comparison with another countries Germany on average works less".
The reforms in the coalition agreement are not adequate in the long run. "Social safety systems are overloaded," Reiche warns. According to her, "High labour costs, i.e. taxes, contributions and another charges, make hiring employees in Germany little profitable and uncompetitive compared to another countries".
Criticism by the CDU
Reiche's speeches met with criticism from the CDA – an organization operating within the CDU organization and focusing on social and labour issues. Vice-President of the CDA, Christian Bäumler, considers Reiche to be a abroad body in the national government and that the demands of the Minister of Economy have no support in the coalition agreement.
"If individual as an economical minister does not announcement that many people in Germany work part-time, resulting in a low average yearly number of hours worked, it means that he is unfit for this position," Bäumler stated.
The German Social Association (SoVD) besides spared no criticism of the head of the Ministry of Economy. SoVD president Michael Engelmeier stressed that the belief that people could work longer could not be an excuse to quietly rise the retirement age.
In her assessment, it is only possible to stabilise the pension strategy if all workers, including public officials (e.g. civilian servants) and parliamentarians, are included in the pension insurance system.
