In politics, calls are getting louder to oblige employers to send their employees to the home office if necessary.
Now the Federal Minister of Labor's plans have been leaked.
Update, 3:09 p.m.:
New plans by the Federal Minister of Labor leaked out during the federal-state decision: According to a report by the German Press Agency (dpa), Hubertus Heil (SPD) is planning to
introduce a home office requirement for companies
via a new regulation
.
In addition, stricter rules in the workplace are provided to make the further spread of Covid-19 more difficult.
From an
incidence value of 50
, employers should therefore be obliged to "offer employees in the case of office work or comparable activities to
carry out
these activities in their home (
home office
)
if there are no compelling operational reasons
", says the
draft
ordinance, which the dpa present.
Each employee should also have a
minimum area of ten square meters in a room
, "as far as the activities to be carried out allow this".
The local authorities are obliged to control the planned specifications, according to the dpa.
But in the regulation there seems to be
loopholes for the home office obligation
.
In the event that the measures mentioned cannot be implemented or not fully implemented, the employer should "ensure the equivalent protection of employees through other suitable protective measures", "in particular through
ventilation
measures
and suitable
separations between the people present
", says the report.
“Home office light” for employers?
Update from January 19, 2021, 2:57 p.m.:
Before today's federal-state meeting on the corona situation, a meeting between Chancellor Angela Merkel and experts is said to have taken place yesterday.
Among others, virologist Christian Drosten, Lothar Wieler from the Robert Koch Institute and Michael Meyer-Hermann and Gérard Krause from the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research in Braunschweig were present.
According to information from the
ARD capital
studio
,
the experts are said to have warned urgently about the new virus variant and, in addition to rapid vaccinations, also
advised
an expansion of the home office
.
As the
BusinessInsider
magazine
reported, today's federal-state decision could result in a
“home office light”
.
Companies could possibly be
obliged
to work from home.
According to the dpa, it should also be discussed whether employers will have to justify why their employees should come to the office in the future.
Disagreements over tougher measures to contain the pandemic
Update from January 19, 2021:
Shortly before the new
corona consultations
by the federal and state governments on Tuesday afternoon, there is a report by the German Press Agency (dpa, as of 11:16 a.m.) according to significant disagreements about stricter measures to contain the pandemic.
As the German Press Agency learned from participants, the SPD countries announced a number of changes to a draft resolution that had previously been sent to several countries.
Before the
deliberations of the Prime Minister with Chancellor Angela Merkel
(CDU)
planned from 2 p.m. onwards
, there should be preliminary talks, the news agency wrote in the morning.
An extension of the lockdown until mid-February is being discussed.
The federal and state governments would also consider putting more pressure on employers to enable more
home offices
.
Read
more about the current developments regarding the Corona summit with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Corona crisis: Call for more home offices in Germany
Update from January 18, 2021, 11:49 a.m
.: Germany is expected to face an extension and tightening of the
corona lockdown *
.
The German Press Agency (dpa) reports on it.
The main reason is the concern that highly contagious
virus mutations
could also spread in this country.
This Tuesday (January 19) the federal and state governments will discuss the next steps.
Some politicians had previously
spoken out in favor of mandatory home office as a measure against the spread of the coronavirus
(see article from January 15).
Debate about the obligation to work from home and other corona measures
It
remains to be seen
which new
corona measures will
ultimately be decided.
Nothing has been decided yet.
Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier told the “Rheinische Post” (Monday), according to dpa: “There is a selection of options on the table.” In addition to an FFP2 mask requirement in rail traffic and possible
curfews, he
also mentioned a
home office
requirement
and significantly stronger contact
restrictions
.
In Bavaria, since this Monday, people have had to wear FFP2 protective masks on buses, trams, underground and suburban trains and in all shops, which protect against infections better than cloth masks.
A night curfew also already applies in the Free State.
Also read
: No salary without a vaccination: Can the boss release vaccine refusers from work?
Green party leader Habeck calls for a legal right to work from home
Green party leader Robert Habeck
, as dpa also reported, has meanwhile
demanded
a
legal right to work from home
in the fight against the corona pandemic.
“This is a very easy instrument to implement,” said Habeck on Monday in the ARD “Morgenmagazin”.
40 percent of people in Germany could work from home, but only 14 percent are currently doing so, he said.
"We've been better before."
Also read:
Cutting hair in lockdown: Are hairdressers allowed to come to customers' homes?
SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach calls for home office to be compulsory
Article from January 15, 2021:
Millions of Germans are currently working from home *, daycare centers, schools and shops are closed nationwide.
But although
public life has largely been shut down
, the lockdown measures do not seem to be working this time: The number of infections with the corona virus is still increasing.
In addition, according to media reports, the
virus mutations from Great Britain and South Africa should
worry politicians.
In order to at least
relieve local traffic
and
curb
the
crowd in buses and trains
, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the state ministers called on business to create generous home office opportunities.
But an appeal to employers alone is no longer enough for some: Many voices are calling for employers to be made more accountable, including Green parliamentary leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt.
The German Press Agency (dpa) reports that
you demand that employers be obliged
to allow
their employees to work from
home wherever
possible
.
SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach even goes one step further: "
We should make the home office mandatory
- wherever it is possible," he told the newspapers of the "Funke Mediengruppe" on January 8, 2021, according to the report.
"In the first lockdown we had a quarter of the workplaces in the home office, now it is only a seventh," says Lauterbach.
"We have a much stronger wave, but
we do a lot less home office
."
Also read:
No salary without a vaccination: Can the boss release vaccination refusers from work?
Home office obligation?
Chancellor announces: "Not yet"
According to the dpa, employers in Germany are not very enthusiastic about the proposals.
Angela Merkel, too, speaks out against an
obligation of employers to work
from home: "We are really relying on the willingness of many to enable home office wherever possible," she said on Tuesday (January 5th) at a press conference to announce immediately afterwards: “We have
not yet decided
on the reversal
.” This “not yet” caused speculation this week.
Is the federal government planning to make home office compulsory?
Almost 60 percent of employees cannot work from home
According to the President of the German Institute for Economic Research, Marcel Fratzscher, an
obligation
to work from home
would
make
little sense
, even
more harm than good
: “Almost 60 percent of employees in Germany cannot work from home, often because their job is a duty in other people.
Companies are already struggling to survive this pandemic, ”said the dpa.
Also read:
Corona: Do I get a sick leave if I have to be in quarantine?
According to legal experts, it is difficult to work from home
And from a legal point of view, an obligation to work from home would be difficult to implement, reports
tageschau.de
.
According to the report, a legal obligation to work from home would presuppose that the employer would have
access to the employee's apartment in order to check compliance with occupational health and safety
.
In addition, the home office would be mandatory
Inviolability of the home, which is protected by Article 13 of the Basic Law.
To make this possible, an agreement between employees and employers would be necessary.
Another important aspect: An obligation to enable employees to work from home would
interfere with entrepreneurial
freedom, which is constitutionally protected in Germany.
A formal law would be necessary for the home office obligation, the report continues.
An ordinance is not sufficient for this.
(as) * Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen central editorial network.
More on the topic:
Corona study with frightening numbers: Home office potential wasted?
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