In July 2026, the German Federal Government adopted the National Action Plan to Promote Collective Bargaining (Action Plan) and submitted it to the Bundestag in September 2026. Its aim is to reverse the decline in collective bargaining coverage in Germany. A closer look shows that most of the measures in the Action Plan are already in place. Employers should therefore look carefully at which of the announced plans are actually new.
Background
Under the EU Minimum Wage Directive, every Member State with collective bargaining coverage below 80% must put forward an action plan to increase it. With coverage of only around 49% (as of 2024), Germany falls well short of this threshold. The Federal Cabinet adopted the plan on 22 July 2026 and submitted it to the Bundestag.
Only two new proposals
The Action Plan lists seven measures, five of which are already in force:
- Federal Collective Agreement Compliance Act (Bundestariftreuegesetz, BTTG).
- Tax incentives for trade union members.
- Short-term, quota-based employment subject to collective agreements.
- Qualification allowance (Qualifizierungsgeld).
- Climate protection contracts with easier terms for companies bound by collective agreements.
Under the BTTG, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS) will use statutory instruments to set sector-specific working conditions based on collective agreements. Contractors must give a collective agreement compliance undertaking and keep to these conditions when performing public contracts. The Act will therefore only apply in practice once the statutory instruments for each sector have been issued, which has not happened yet. Commentators in German employment law have also raised constitutional concerns about the Act, particularly that it may interfere with the freedom of collective bargaining.
The two proposals that have not yet been implemented are as follows.
The first is a reform of the Working Hours Act.
The plans are a weekly rather than a daily limit on maximum working hours, a requirement to record working time electronically, more scope for Sunday working in bakeries, patisseries and libraries from 1 January 2027.
In June 2026, the BMAS produced an internal working draft of a bill, which has already drawn strong criticism.
Under the draft, the new flexibility, in particular the move from a daily to a weekly limit, could only be introduced by a collective agreement, or by a works or service agreement based on a collective agreement. Electronic time recording would also have opt-outs on the form and timing of records, and these would likewise depend on collective agreements.
The second proposal is a right of digital access to workplaces for trade unions. Under the previous government, this right was included in the ministerial draft of the Collective Agreement Compliance Act. It was dropped after the traffic light coalition collapsed. In its decision of 28 January 2025 (1 AZR 33/24), the Federal Labour Court set clear limits on rights of access. The court made clear that the conflicting constitutional rights of employers and trade unions must be balanced against each other. Doubts about whether such legislation would be constitutional are therefore already being raised, and with good reason. Even so, the National Action Plan provides for legislation on this point during the current legislative term.
Practical note
The Action Plan mostly refers to law that is already in force. The real changes will come from the outstanding proposals on the Working Hours Act and on digital union access. Employers should therefore follow the legislative process closely.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
