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Can the boss expect me to keep checking my emails even during the holidays?
Photo: wildpixel / iStockphoto / Getty Images
Can I get my Christmas bonus this year as a tax-free corona bonus?
No, Christmas bonus remains Christmas bonus. However, until March 2022, employers have the option of paying their employees 1,500 euros as a corona bonus. In this case, however, in addition to any Christmas bonus, which must be agreed in the works agreement, the employment or collective bargaining agreement of the respective employee.
This 1500 euro corona bonus is free of taxes and social security contributions. So gross is equal to net. Paying such a corona bonus is not a must for the employer, it is rather a nice "thank you" to the employees. "The corona premium is paid as compensation for the additional workload that employees have in the pandemic," says Saskia Steffen, specialist lawyer for labor law from Frankfurt am Main. The corona premium is therefore more of an attention from the employer. It is different with the corona bonus for nurses, which should come from 2022. The state will then pay out a premium of up to EUR 3,000 per person. The new government wants to get the law off the ground in early 2022 - the premium should then flow to the nursing staff in the first quarter of next year.
Most of my friends have already received their Christmas bonus.
I don't yet.
After such an exhausting year, I have to be entitled to it, right?
"Unfortunately, you can't say that," says specialist lawyer Steffen.
There is no statutory right to a Christmas bonus.
If so, a claim to Christmas bonus must result from the employment contract, the collective bargaining agreement or a works agreement.
However, the law per se does not provide for a Christmas bonus.
However, if a company has voluntarily paid its employees a Christmas bonus for at least three years, then it must do so this year as well.
"If the Christmas bonus was paid out in the same amount over at least three years without reservation, then employees are entitled to it again this year," says Steffen.
The same applies here to employers: tradition obliges.
Now the corona regulations have been tightened again nationwide: Are we even allowed to have a Christmas party?
The applicable corona rules and restrictions, which the federal and state governments adopted on December 2nd at the Prime Minister's Conference, are decisive here.
For celebrations attended exclusively by vaccinated or convalescent people, a person limit applies in areas with an incidence of more than 350.
It is a maximum of 50 people indoors and a maximum of 200 people outdoors.
The 3G rule has been in place in the workplace since the end of November.
This means that only employers and employees who have been vaccinated, recovered or tested have access.
For a Christmas party, this 3G obligation at work does not initially have any effect.
“No work is done at a Christmas party, but it is an event that you can take part in voluntarily,” says the lawyer.
However, if the work party takes place on the premises of the company, the 3G standard must currently also be applied here, she clarifies.
»The data that employees have to present to their employer about their vaccination, test or convalescence status have been significantly relaxed by the 3G regulation in the workplace.
In this respect, nothing else can apply to a Christmas party in the business premises, ”says Steffen.
In my company there is little work between the years.
Can my employer simply send me and my colleagues to the company holidays?
"Company holidays can be arranged in such a low-work period, yes," says Steffen.
However, it is important that the employer informs his employees well in advance.
“The case law assumes six months here,” she says.
In times of having to work from home, the bulletin board as an information channel has had its day.
Here the boss should either use the intranet or the classic e-mail.
"Most employers choose the simple e-mail," says the labor lawyer.
And during the holidays - do I always have to be available for my boss?
Everyone knows it: the presents are over, the Christmas tree is shining, the children have their presents in view and grandma treats herself to a cup of punch on the sofa. Only mom and dad have their smartphones in their hands to quickly check again whether the boss has emailed news about the major project. "It can be assumed that this year too, under the Christmas tree, the company cell phone will be within easy reach for many employees," says Anja Piel from the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB).
In most cases, employees do not have to worry legally if the company cell phone stays off at Christmas.
"Without a separate agreement on on-call duty, employees are generally not obliged to be available for the employer outside of the agreed working hours," says the DGB.
"That applies just as much after work as it does during vacation time or on public holidays."
I've read that access to short-time work has now been extended again - what does that mean in concrete terms?
Decisive for this question is a document whose name would also have a good chance of winning the hangman: the so-called
Short-time work allowance extension ordinance.
It extends the duration of short-time work allowance up to a maximum of 24 months and the simplified access introduced during the crisis by a further three months until March 31, 2022.
Easier access conditions for short-time work means here, for example, that it is sufficient if at least ten percent of the employees in the company are affected by a loss of work.
"Without easier access, at least a third of the workforce must be affected by the loss of work," says Steffen.
In my company there is now an obligation to work from home again.
Can my employer still summon me to the office if there is an emergency?
In order to contain the pandemic, it has been mandatory to work from home in Germany since the end of November.
However, there are - also currently - exceptions to this.
»If you deliver parcels as a messenger or pack goods in a logistics company, you cannot do this work from your home office.
In these cases it is okay under labor law if you are called to work, ”says Steffen.
When it comes to the question of whether you have to come to the company in case of doubt, it is therefore important whether you can do your job in the office to the full.
»In principle, the employer is obliged, if the job makes it possible, to offer work from home.
At the same time, employees have to accept the offer if the spatial situation at home allows this, ”says the lawyer.
There is currently no legal entitlement to work from the home office in Germany.
Unlike in France or the Netherlands, for example.
"As far as we know, however, something could happen in the near future," says Steffen.
The new coalition agreement also arouses this hope.
The right to work from home should therefore continue to exist regardless of the current pandemic situation.
Let's see whether the legislator's promise will be kept by Christmas - 2022 of course.
With material from dpa
