Without work, no money from the employer, the Federal Labor Court decided in its first Corona judgment.
Are mini jobbers getting empty now?
According to a decision by the Federal Labor Court, employers do not bear the operational risk if their businesses had to close under a general lockdown regulation.
They also
do not have the obligation to continue paying mini-jobbers *
who were unable to work during the tough phases of the pandemic, in which large parts of public life had to be suspended.
The Federal Labor Court decided on Wednesday in Erfurt in its first Corona judgment (5 AZR 211/21).
The precedent came from Lower Saxony.
Failure to compensate for disadvantages for mini-jobbers cannot be blamed on employers
"The impossibility of work is the result of a sovereign intervention to combat a dangerous situation that affects society as a whole," declared the highest German labor judges.
The
lack of financial disadvantage compensation for mini-jobbers by the state
in the event of a Corona loss of work means that “no employer's obligation to pay under labor law can be derived”.
+
In the corona pandemic, many companies had to close temporarily due to official measures.
This was mainly at the expense of the mini-jobbers.
© Shotshop / Imago
No short-time work allowance for mini-jobbers - appeal to politicians
And the judges sent a message in the direction of politics: While there is compensation for lost work for employees subject to social insurance through easier access to short-time work allowance, marginal employees like the plaintiff are faced with “gaps in the regulatory system subject to social insurance”.
The Bundestag member of the Left, Susanne Ferschl, spoke of a
wake-up call to the new government to finally close the security gaps in mini-jobs
.
The mini-job promise gross equal net is a boomerang for employees in the event of a crisis.
Also read:
Mini jobbers: This is how much money a 450 euro job can mean for your retirement.
Mini-jobber from Bremen had sued
The proceedings of a mini-jobber from a sewing machine shop in Bremen were negotiated. After the ruling, she cannot insist on remuneration during a closure in April 2020 - it was about 432 euros. In contrast to the lower courts in Lower Saxony, the federal judges did not follow the plaintiff's argument that the business closings by the Bremen authorities were part of the operational risk that the defendant small business owner had to bear.
The Bonn labor lawyer Gregor Thüsing considers the decision to be understandable. "The pandemic is a general life risk, it affects the whole of society," said Thüsing of the German press agency. “It is not a risk that can only be assigned to the employer, who therefore does not bear the wage risk.” The specialist lawyer Nina Hartmann, on the other hand, spoke of a
surprising judgment that opposes the opinion of the lower courts and other labor and state labor courts
.
"The first Corona ordinances were the most far-reaching," said the presiding judge Rüdiger Linck in the hearing.
Whether all regulations in Germany had this scope would have to be examined in each specific case.
It was important to Linck to find out that there was no alternative employment for the plaintiff in the small branch.
Also read:
Mini job alongside your main job?
Then there is one thing that you absolutely have to pay attention to.
It is still unclear how many mini jobbers are affected
It is not possible to say exactly what effects the judgment will have.
According to the HDE trade association, there are
around 808,000 marginally employed people
in German retail alone
.
Some of the retail trade was affected by the officially ordered shop closings, but not the food and drugstore sector.
Neither the HDE nor the Verdi union were able to answer how many mini-jobbers, like the plaintiff, received no pay during the lockdown phases.
After all, the judgment focused on a large number of people who are dependent on mini jobs.
There are currently no signs of a huge wave of lawsuits, said spokesmen for the association, the union and the Federal Labor Court.
In larger companies such as department stores, mini-jobbers were often assigned other tasks, said Petra Ringer from Verdi.
Some have also switched to the grocery trade
.
“People were needed desperately.” Nobody could really say what it looked like in the many small specialist shops.
"But there will have been problems," said Ringer.
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No repayment claims expected
Labor lawyer Thüsing does not expect that mini-jobbers who received their wages when the company was closed will now have to pay it back.
“There will be no demands for repayment.
Most contracts also have preclusive periods. ”Mini-jobbers are employees who earn a maximum of 450 euros a month or who work a maximum of 70 days a year.
You do not pay any social security contributions.
(dpa / as) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
.
List of rubric lists: © Shotshop / Imago
