The former SPD leader Andrea Nahles is to become the new head of the Federal Employment Agency (BA). This is what unions and employers are proposing, which means that their election to the top of the largest German authority with more than 100,000 employees is considered safe. The personnel was not a sure-fire success: there was resistance to Nahles from employers for a long time.
The Federal Employment Agency has an influence on the lives of many citizens. It is responsible for finding new jobs and is supposed to control the qualification of employees for a technologically rapidly changing economic world. During the Corona crisis, it helped to prevent mass unemployment by providing short-time work benefits for more than six million employees at times.
The Nahles proposal comes from the unions. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), a confidant of Nahles, is also considered an advocate for her appointment. The German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB) and the Confederation of Employers’ Associations (BDA) announced on Tuesday that they were now holding talks with Nahles. This clears the way for Nahles: the two social partners, together with politicians, determine who runs the federal agency.
Criticism was initially heard from the employer camp that Nahles was moving to the top of the job authority. Nahles is too left and very polarizing. She also knows too little about the inner workings of the huge organization. The employers have now given up their resistance. As a deal, they can propose two new board members themselves: Vanessa Ahuja, previously head of department in the Federal Ministry of Labor and at times even the head of the job authority under discussion – and the human resources manager Katrin Krömer.
Supporters of Nahle’s personnel argue that, as a former labor minister, she is very well qualified to head the agency. In addition, it is right to appoint a woman to the head of the agency for the first time. Nahles resigned as SPD leader in 2019. She has headed the Federal Post and Telecommunications Agency since 2020.
The change of board is necessary because the previous head of the BA, Detlef Scheele, is retiring for reasons of age, as is board member Christiane Schönefeld. Daniel Terzenbach will continue in office, so that the board will consist of four members in the future.