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Will the obligation to work from home be extended? New plans leaked by Federal Labor Minister Heil

2021-04-12T13:05:09.734Z


The obligation to work from home, which was introduced to combat the corona pandemic, expires at the end of April. Will it be renewed again?


The obligation to work from home, which was introduced to combat the corona pandemic, expires at the end of April.

Will it be renewed again?

  • As part of the corona measures, the federal government had issued a new ordinance obliging employers to

    offer

    their

    employees home office *

    wherever possible.

  • The

    home office requirement

    has been in

    effect

    since January 27, 2021.

  • The home office regulation is now to be

    extended

    again.

Federal Minister of Labor wants to extend home office regulation until June

Update from April 12, 2021:

The new SARS-CoV-2 occupational health and safety

ordinance has been

in force since January 27, obliging employers to

offer

their employees

home office

- if they can.

However, the rule expires on April 30th.

Will it be extended again?

Everything points to it.

As emerges from a conversation between Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) and

Bild am Sonntag

, the home office regulation in the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance should continue to apply: "Wherever possible, you have to work from home," said Heil.

The Federal Minister of Labor is also campaigning for mandatory corona testing to be introduced for all companies in Germany.

The decision should be made this week.

Corona summit in March: Mandatory home office will be extended until the end of April

Update from March 4, 2021

: The federal government and the states held yesterday's conference of ministers presidents again to discuss how to proceed with the corona pandemic.

The topic of home office was also addressed here again.

A new SARS-CoV-2 occupational health and safety ordinance has been in force since January 27, obliging employers to offer their employees home office if possible.

However, the ordinance was initially limited to March 15.

According to the latest decision by the federal and state governments, the

home office requirement

is now

extended to April 30th

.

Overall, the lockdown was extended by the federal government until March 28th.

However, the next easing for bookstores, flower shops and hardware stores should start on March 8th.

If the incidence is below 50, museums, galleries, zoological and botanical gardens and memorials will be able to welcome visitors again from next Monday.

Home office obligation: These new rules apply immediately for employees

Update from January 27, 2021:

The

new SARS-CoV-2 occupational health and safety ordinance of

the federal government

is effective immediately: Employers are now obliged, among other things, to offer their employees home office wherever possible.

The employees “should accept the offer as far as they can”, but are not obliged to work from home, according to the Federal Ministry.

In addition, the

rules for infection protection in the workplace are being

tightened

(see below, update from January 21, 2021)

.

The regulation is initially

limited

to March 15

.

If the infection situation does not relax by then, it could also be extended by the federal government, reports the German Press Agency (dpa).

According to the dpa, compliance with the ordinance should be monitored by the health and safety authorities of the federal states.

At the request of the authorities, the employer must present

reasons why home office is not possible.

In the “greatest emergency”,

fines of theoretically 30,000 euros are also

possible, according to the dpa report, Labor Minister Heil warned.

Also read:

FFP2 mask requirement: When does the employer have to pay for the expensive protection?

Obligation to work from home: The new rules for employees and employers

Update from January 21, 2021, 1:05 p.m

.:

As of next Wednesday, January 27, 2021

,

companies must

offer

their employees

work in the home office

- if this is basically feasible

.

Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil from the SPD has now ordered this.

The new regulation also includes measures for working in the company when home office is not possible.

The tightened rules at a glance:

  • Distance

    : In rooms that are used by several people at the same time, a space of

    at least ten square meters

    per person

    must be

    available.

    If this is not possible, protection should be

    ensured

    through regular ventilation and the erection of

    partition walls

    .

  • Grouping

    : In companies with more than ten employees, these must be divided into fixed, as small as possible

    working

    groups.

  • Protective masks

    : If these distance and protection rules cannot be adhered to, companies must provide their employees with free

    medical face masks

    .

    You can find out in which cases a face mask must be worn here.

The solo lunch break

: Originally, Hubertus Heil's draft also stated that employees are only allowed

to eat lunch alone

and that

a

weekly corona test

must be carried out

in companies with more than 50 employees

if the local incidence is over 200 and the The 10-square-meter rule cannot be adhered to.

However, both points have

been deleted from the regulation

.

These existing

rules still apply

:

  • a

    minimum distance of 1.5 m

    from other people (also in

    canteens and break rooms

    )

  • Wear a

    mouth and nose covering

    where the minimum distance is not possible

  • regular

    ventilation

  • Employers must provide

    liquid soap and towel dispensers

    in sanitary facilities.

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These WiFi tricks help - without changing provider.

The most important details about the new obligation to work from home

Update from January 20, 2021, 9:35

am: At 11:00 am, Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil from the SPD will present the new home office regulation in detail.

The most important details of the

home office obligation

are already known and are available to the German Press Agency, among others.

The

revised regulation

, which is currently being presented to the Federal Cabinet,

states

that employers are

obliged to offer their employees work from home

in the case of office work or a comparable activity

- as long as there are no operational reasons against it.

This obligation is no longer linked to a specific incidence value.

Heil urgently warned employers the evening before to

arbitrarily

cancel

the home office option

.

He announced

controls by the occupational health and safety authorities

.

In other words, employers must be able to provide credible assurance as to why their employees are not in the home office - provided, of course, that the nature of the work permits this.

The

employees are not obliged

to accept the offer to work from home, as reported by the German press agency.

Home office compulsory?

The plans of Federal Labor Minister Heil

Update from January 19, 2021, 3:09 pm:

New plans of 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 the

introduction of a

new regulation

Home office compulsory for companies

.

In addition, stricter rules in the workplace are provided to make the 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 to

prevent

this,

" says the

draft

ordinance, which the dpa is present.

Each employee should also have a

minimum area of ​​ten square meters in a room

, "insofar as the activities to be carried out allow this".

The local authorities are obliged to control the planned requirements, 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 cannot be implemented in full, the employer should "ensure 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 of 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 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 tighter 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 here.

Corona crisis: Call for more home offices in Germany

Update from January 18, 2021, 11:49 a.m

.: Germany is expected to be facing 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.

On this Tuesday (January 19), the federal and state governments will discuss the next steps.

Some politicians had previously

spoken out in favor of compulsory 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, as well as 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 called for a

legal right to work from home

in the fight against the corona pandemic.

"This is a very easy to implement instrument," 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 effective 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

are said to 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 Party 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 compulsory?

Chancellor announces: "Not yet"

According to the dpa, employers in Germany are not very enthusiastic about the proposals.

Angela Merkel, too,

initially

speaks out against an

obligation on employers to work

from home: "We are really counting 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 an obligation to work from home after all?

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 require the employer

to gain 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 therefore 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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Source: merkur

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