Following a reform summit held at the Chancellery with representatives from business and trade unions, CDU parliamentary group chairman Jens Spahn has been pushing for changes to labor time law. Spahn told “Bild am Sonntag” that the issue of weekly working hours is fundamentally a practical aspect of everyday life. He argued that if an employee receives a professional email at 11 PM, current labor protection laws often forbid them from starting their next shift early the following morning.
Spahn noted that while employers and their employees can agree flexibly regarding working hours, necessary protections must still exist-a consensus he says has been reached by the Union and the SPD. He expressed optimism that the SPD would support the specific elements that gave the Union difficulty, such as reforms concerning pensions.
Furthermore, Spahn called for a revision of the highly contentious Section 188 of the Criminal Code, which assigns special penalties for insulting individuals in political life. While he agrees that politicians deserve protection from hate and aggression, he stated that the current regulation is frequently perceived by the public as granting a “special right to the powerful.”
According to Spahn, the paragraph must be reformed to dispel this perception. He conceded that he can tolerate certain types of personal insults, saying, “If someone calls me a complete idiot, I can deal with it. I put up with a lot.” However, he stressed that limits must exist, and these boundaries should be established within a regulation that applies to everyone.
