Businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, are significantly burdened by bureaucratic requirements in labour and social legislation, restricting their flexibility (compare chapter "Reduction of Bureaucracy and Better Regulations"). Recording and documentation obligations should therefore also be reduced in labour and social legislation.
This includes considering provisions that, whilst not directly imposing documentation obligations, inevitably lead to bureaucratic burdens, such as minimising liability risks (e.g., client liability under the Minimum Wage Act).
Furthermore, businesses require the option to distribute working hours more flexibly across weekdays and organise resting periods more variably within a weekly maximum limit. Additional obligations and economic burdens, such as electronic recording requirements for working hours, are widely rejected by companies. In social legislation, it would be prudent to reduce the high reporting, information, and certification burdens on companies; simplify the U1 and U2 levy procedures; and make mandatory levies, like the artists' social contribution, more business-friendly. EU regulations and varied national labour and social legislation (reporting, verification, and occupational safety obligations), for instance regarding employee posting, the A1 certificate for postings, business trips, and mobile work abroad, create legal uncertainties, bureaucratic loads, and additional costs for businesses. There is a need for uniform, easily implementable EU-wide provisions to provide services and standardised procedures for employee postings, remote work, and cross-border employment to ensure fair competition for businesses within the internal market. Necessary mobility and flexibility must be guaranteed for these cross-border activities.