BERLIN, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) has presented on Thursday reform suggestions for a "new social state" that includes an increase of the minimum wage from currently 9.19 euros to 12 euros (10.44 to 13.63 U.S. dollars) as well as the right to work from home.
"With this concept we open a series of reform proposals of the welfare state for a new era," read the proposal that will be discussed at a SPD board meeting on Sunday and Monday.
According to the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), 40 percent of employees in Germany could theoretically be expected to work from home but only 12 percent are given the opportunity to work from what is called "home office".
Other reforms outlined in a 17-page proposal seen by Xinhua on Thursday include the strengthening of workers' rights as well as more flexible conditions with regards to family planning and a simplification of government payments for children.
In order to strengthen a social Europe, the proposal also envisages to "establish a binding framework for enforcing minimum wages and basic social security systems within the EU. This will ensure solidarity and fair competition."
"These are quantum leaps in our welfare state, which only have the goal that people can work again who have been out for a long time," Kevin Kuehnert, chairman of the young SPD, told public broadcaster ARD.
Germany's social democratic party is in a deep crisis and party leader Andrea Nahles is under great pressure to improve the current polls that see the SPD at 15 percent or below. The latest Forsa survey on Wednesday saw the SPD fall to another historic low of only 12 percent.
