NRNBERG (dpa-AFX) – Andrea Nahles took the last big hurdle on her way to her new job as head of Germany’s largest authority. On Friday, the administrative board of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) proposed the former head of the SPD as the new chairwoman of the board. The corresponding resolution for the 51-year-old former Federal Minister of Labor was made jointly by employees and employers on the Administrative Board.
Both sides had already agreed in January on a personnel package for the federal agency headed by Nahles. The employers had given up their initially expressed resistance to the SPD politician. Nahles will succeed Detlef Scheele in the office – he, too, a former SPD politician as Hamburg Senator for Social Affairs and State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Labor.
The package also envisages that two recognized experts in labor market policy, Deutsche Bahn manager Katrin Krmer and Vanessa Ahuja, previously head of department in the Federal Ministry of Labor, will join the board. Daniel Terzenbach will remain as a constant on the board, which has been expanded from three to four members. BA CEO Scheele will retire at the end of July, HR and Finance Director Christiane Schnefeld, who will be succeeded by Krmer, in September. As the forthcoming fourth member of the board, Ahuja will start in Nuremberg in May.
Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) described the three new women on the board as proven labor market experts. “With the former Federal Minister for Labor and Social Affairs, Andrea Nahles, the Federal Employment Agency has an outstanding personality as CEO,” he said. “I am convinced that she will use her extensive experience in labor and social policy to shape future labor market policy with a great deal of commitment.” He is sure that she will continue Scheele’s excellent work.
Up to now, Nahles has headed the Federal Post Office and Telecommunications Agency in Bonn with 1,000 employees. In Nuremberg, she will not only be responsible for the fortunes of more than 100,000 employees throughout Germany, but also for the largest budget of any German public authority, with an annual budget of around 40 billion euros. In addition to the consequences of the corona pandemic and the ongoing shortage of skilled workers in a rapidly changing economic world, the integration of Ukraine refugees will also be one of the most pressing problems at the beginning of their term of office.
As the co-chair of the board of directors for the employer side, Christina Ramb, emphasized, in the next few years it will also be important to press ahead with the internal reform of the federal agency, which has already begun. “Digitization, demographic development and securing skilled workers are already making considerable demands on the BA – not only on the job market, but also internally,” she said. Together with the administrative board, the current board of directors have worked intensively on getting better and better in terms of human resources, IT, digitization and infrastructure. “This needs to be addressed,” said Ramb.
DGB board member Anja Piel emphasized the challenges for the federal agency on behalf of the employee side: Corona, transformation in industry, Ukraine. “These challenges require a motivated and competent management team that shapes the future of the labor market together with the board of directors and the social partners.”
The federal cabinet still has to formally approve the personnel proposal, and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has to appoint Nahles. She is supposed to officially start in her new office on August 1st, but could already go through an induction phase before that./dm/DP/eas