On March 17, 2026, the digital ProduktionNRW event “Labor Law and Labor Market Policy” took place with insights into current developments and challenges.
Fabian Seus, Deputy Head of the VDMA Legal Department, opened the event with an overview of the labor market policy framework. In addition to an analysis of the employment situation and capacity utilization, he explained how new legal regulations – such as the active pension, the extension of the short-time working allowance and changes to the ban on pre-employment for pensioners – are affecting companies. The pay transparency directive and the reform of the Working Hours Act were also in focus.
In the second part, Dr. Christian Hess presented the most important employment law decisions of recent months. He showed how current rulings on equal pay, default of acceptance and pay increases influence practice. New findings on compliance, discrimination in the workplace and dismissals for assault were also particularly relevant.
Another topic was the latest ECJ rulings on working time in the case of changing work locations and the significance of collective redundancy notices. The latest findings on probationary periods in fixed-term employment relationships were also discussed.
The event also provided space for individual questions from companies. This allowed participants to benefit from the speakers’ expertise.
The next meeting will take place in October.
Organizer
The event was organized by ProduktionNRW. ProduktionNRW is the cluster for mechanical engineering and production technology in North Rhine-Westphalia and is organized by VDMA NRW. ProduktionNRW sees itself as a platform for networking, informing and marketing companies, institutions and networks with each other and along the value chain. Significant parts of the services provided by ProduktionNRW are funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.