It’s Black-Red’s birthday: For a year now, the Union and the SPD, led by Chancellor Merz, have wanted to take on “responsibility for Germany” according to their coalition agreement. They have undertaken all sorts of things in the area of HR-relevant topics (we reported). While some things have already been implemented, much of it is still a long way off. This sometimes also causes uncertainty in human resources departments.
Collective Bargaining Act? Check!
The Federal Collective Bargaining Act was recently given the green light: Since the beginning of May 2026, companies that take on federal contracts have been obliged to provide their employees with collectively agreed working conditions. This includes, among other things, remuneration, vacation entitlement and regulations on rest periods.
The law applies to federal contracts with a contract value of at least 50,000 euros. According to the government, the associated bureaucratic effort was deliberately kept to a minimum: Accordingly, a “tariff loyalty promise can be made as a simple, unbureaucratic declaration”. There are no complex requirements for proof or extensive controls. Nevertheless, there is criticism: employer associations speak of “compulsory collective bargaining” and unnecessary bureaucracy, while unions miss “more effective control and sanction mechanisms”.
Quo vadis working time (recording)?
According to the coalition agreement, Black-Red wants to “create the possibility of weekly instead of daily maximum working hours”. In addition, there should be an “obligation to record working hours electronically”. After the previous government had already presented a draft bill on working time recording in 2023, the Ministry of Labor now apparently wants to take up the topic again. According to a report in Bild on Tuesday, Minister Bärbel Bas (SPD) plans to present “a new regulation of the Working Hours Act in June”. In it she wants to “link the new hourly rule to digital working time recording”. Exceptions are apparently being discussed for small businesses and companies bound by collective agreements. While business associations primarily expect models with trust-based working hours to continue, the DGB is vehemently against moving away from the eight-hour day.
Overtime and overtime pay
An open construction site is also the planned tax exemption for overtime that goes beyond full-time work. According to the coalition agreement, the guideline should be “a weekly working time of at least 34 hours for collective agreements and 40 hours for working hours that are not agreed upon or agreed upon”. An apparently leaked draft bill from the Ministry of Finance from September 2025 was not pursued further in this regard after criticism from many quarters.
Instead, the “Law on Tax Support for Employees of Retirement Age (Active Pension Act)” came into force at the beginning of the year. It stipulates that working regular old-age pensioners are allowed to earn up to 2,000 euros a month tax-free. The aim is to offer incentives to continue working and thus alleviate the shortage of skilled workers. There are currently no concrete plans for additional work among younger people. Currently, only surcharges for Sunday, public holiday and night work are tax-free within certain limits (§ 3b EStG); There is no legal regulation for regular overtime bonuses.
Black box EU pay transparency directive?
The government did not give itself a topic that is extremely important for human resources departments, but rather received it from Brussels: the EU Pay Transparency Directive (ETRL). This must be implemented into national law by June 7, 2026 – actually. The aim is for employers to close the gender pay gap. To this end, employees should receive simplified access to information. In contrast, companies face additional information and reporting obligations regarding remuneration.
In the fall, a commission made suggestions for a “low-bureaucracy” implementation. However, it is still unclear what actually ends up in the law. This particularly concerns questions such as:
- the definition of the concept of remuneration and comparative remuneration (Is it about wages and salaries themselves or do special benefits or benefits in kind also count?)
- the scope of application (at what size company must which pay reports be prepared and how detailed should wage and salary structures be disclosed?)
- Dealing with unjustified pay differences (How is remedial action taken, which co-determination rights of the works council apply?)
Since a draft law expected for January has not yet been submitted, implementation of the ETRL on schedule seems almost impossible. In response to a request from the human resources industry, the Federal Ministry for Education, Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth said at the end of April: “The EU Pay Transparency Directive will be implemented into national law during this legislative period.”
Practical tip: The directive applies directly to public companies from June 8, 2026. The private sector, on the other hand, is not yet obliged to do so, but must expect that (higher) labor courts will decide in accordance with the ETRL, which is European law, even before a law comes into force. HR and managers should definitely take this into account. Especially since pay discrimination, if it can be proven, is already not permitted.
AGG amendment extends claims
Another homework task for the Merz government also comes from Europe: the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) is being amended to implement two EU directives. A corresponding draft from the Ministry of Justice and the Federal Ministry of Education, Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth was approved by the Federal Cabinet on Wednesday. It stipulates that claims for discrimination can in future be asserted for four months instead of just two.
There will also be changes to the so-called church clause (Section 9 AGG), which allows religious communities and their institutions, within certain limits, to treat employees differently because of their religion or belief.
The Independent Federal Commissioner for Anti-Discrimination, Ferda Ataman, was dissatisfied with the amendment and criticized it in a statement as “inadequate”. The draft “does not do justice to the need for reform in protection against discrimination in Germany”. There is a lack of protective measures against disadvantages caused by AI and automated decision-making systems. Such systems are also used in human resources departments. The extension of the deadline from two to four months for asserting claims is not enough; from their point of view, “at least twelve months” are necessary.
What else is in the pipeline?
Other government projects primarily concern the operational work in many human resources departments: On the one hand, there is the formal approval requirement for longer stays, which men between the ages of 17 and 45 have had to obtain from the Bundeswehr since the beginning of the year. This also indirectly affects the posting of employees and, according to experts, can potentially delay planned assignments for the employer, at least in the short term.
Managers and payroll employees should also have the relief bonus recently decided by the Bundestag on their proverbial list. This stipulates that employers can pay their employees a tax- and duty-free relief bonus of up to 1,000 euros until the summer of 2027. There is no obligation to pay, but the desire among many employees is high.
As part of the planned health care reform, the federal government recently initiated the introduction of partial sick leave. According to the draft, sick employees should work part of the time during the illness and take sick leave for the rest of the period. You can read about the possible advantages and disadvantages of the planned regulation in our focus article.
Frank Strankmann is an editor and writes offline and online. His focus is on the topics of labor law, co-determination and regulation. He is also responsible for other projects for media brands from FAZ Business Media GmbH.
