The first working meeting of the leaders of the CDU / CSU and the SPD after the summer holidays lasted more than eight hours. The politicians managed to reach an agreement and make a decision, in particular, to extend the benefit for a shorter working day. Another of the adopted decrees concerns the reduction of the Bundestag.
Years of debate were crowned with success – a compromise was reached on the issue of electoral reform. The number of parliamentarians in the Bundestag will be reduced. For the 2021 elections, the number of constituencies will remain the same. By the elections in 2025, their number will be reduced from 299 to 280.
Shorter working hours benefits will be extended. It was originally planned to pay aid by the end of 2020 to prevent a wave of layoffs. Instead of twelve months, the benefit will be paid until December 2021 inclusive. Companies in need of support, until June 30, 2021, will receive compensation from the Federal Employment Agency (BA) for the paid social security contributions that they must pay while the employee is working in the shortened working hours.
The 80 percent increase in benefit agreed in April will also be extended until the end of 2021. In May, according to BA, 6.7 million people were transferred to shorter working hours. The cost of this measure will amount to tens of billions of euros. By the end of July, BA had paid out over eleven billion euros in reduced hours benefits and social security contributions to companies.
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