Ricarda Lang, a social‑policy advocate from the Green Party, has urged that the current debate over a statutory right to part‑time work be complemented by a legal entitlement to full‑time work. “Employees should be legally entitled to increase their working hours up to full time when a company has the capacity to accommodate that load” Lang told the Funke Medien group’s newspapers on Wednesday. “If we want flexibility to mean something, we must also significantly expand bridged part‑time arrangements”.
Lang’s goal is more harmonious work‑life balance, not greater availability. She stresses that childcare and elder‑care infrastructure must be massively expanded so that balance becomes a reality rather than a matter of goodwill. The former Green Party leader says that the CDU’s move to restrict part‑time rights represents an attack on workers’ rights. While some members of the Union continue to claim they are promoting flexibility, Gitta Connemann makes it clear that the real objective is fewer rights, less protection and reduced freedom for employees. “The Union’s economic wing demonstrates how ignorant the CDU is of people’s everyday realities – especially women’s” Lang said.
Many people who work part time raise children, care for relatives, or volunteer. “That is not lazy, but honorable” Lang explained. Others choose part‑time because their jobs are physically demanding. Women in particular often want to work more, but lack the necessary infrastructure or employer willingness to accommodate this. “Instead of solving these problems, the Union simply labels people lazy and the country poor” Lang added. By pushing for a full‑time mandate, the Union makes employment less attractive for women and fails to address the skilled‑worker shortage, she warned. The CDU politician Gitta Connemann, under the banner of “lifestyle part‑time” introduced a clear restriction to the existing statutory right to part‑time work and sparked vigorous debate over working hours and workers’ rights.