BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Employers reject the Federal Defense Minister’s planned mandatory participation of employees in reserve exercises Bundeswehr away. “The double voluntary nature has proven to be a viable model for reconciling the interests of the Bundeswehr and the economy,” said Employer President Rainer Dulger to the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. “We should stick to this,” warned Dulger.
To date, participation in reserve exercises not only requires the consent of the former soldiers, but the employer also has to agree for time off from work. The Ministry of Defense, on the other hand, is preparing a draft law that would require reservists to serve in peacetime in the future.
“Military service is voluntary,” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius emphasized in Montreal, Canada. Anyone who takes up military service knows “that they will then be obliged to carry out reserve exercises”. The SPD politician Pistorius referred to the task of providing 200,000 reservists to the planned 260,000 men and women in the active troops. These would be gained significantly through the new military service. Reserve service members should benefit from meaningful exercises. “But what’s important for us is that this cannot be based on voluntariness. That’s why there will be an obligation,” said Pistorius.
The Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA) urges that the requirements of the Bundeswehr and the economy be carefully balanced. “Especially when expanding the reserve and making it mandatory to recruit employees, there needs to be a balance between the personnel needs of the Bundeswehr and the operational needs of companies,” said Dulger. In particular, companies need “planning ability and legally secure transparency”. They would have to know which of their employees could be called up for reserve duty./shy/DP/he