Sick leave, continued payment of wages, free testing: what the new quarantine rules mean for employees
Created: 01/19/2022, 12:24 p.m
By: Andrea Stettner
The new quarantine rules also affect employees.
© Julian Stratenschulte/dpa
The federal and state governments have agreed on new quarantine rules.
You can read here how the changes will affect employees and what you currently need to consider.
In view of the rapidly spreading omicron virus variant*, the federal and state governments have agreed on new corona rules.
Among other things, the
provisions for quarantine and isolation will be simplified
so that areas of the critical infrastructure (such as the police, fire brigade, electricity supply, etc.) remain able to act and there are no staff shortages.
The individual federal states have largely implemented these regulations.
We show what currently applies to employees in Germany.
What applies to corona-positive workers in isolation?
Anyone who has a positive PCR test must be
isolated
as an infected person . This means that you are not allowed to leave the apartment, you are not allowed to meet other people and you are also not allowed to appear at work. A special regulation is currently in effect in most countries, according to which a positive PCR test enables immediate isolation. Otherwise, this must be ordered by the health department. With this, employees also secure continued payment of wages if they are unable to do their work at home.
If you have symptoms of a Covid disease such as a cold or fever, the doctor can write you
off sick
.
Without symptoms, the following applies: if you are able to work from home, you are obliged to do so.
Everyone else should check with their employer.
They can also assign other work that can be done from home.
Isolation now ends automatically
after ten days
, previously you had to wait 14 days.
Also read:
Corona bonus for many employees: who gets money now?
What applies to employees in quarantine?
Anyone who has had contact with an infected person must go into quarantine at home as a suspected case. The health department will issue a corresponding instruction, which can also arrive with a time delay. Fully
vaccinated, boosted and recovered people
are now mostly (depending on country regulations) exempt from quarantine due to the new regulation. The same applies to newly vaccinated and recovered. These must then also appear at the workplace.
As in isolation, the following applies: Anyone who is in quarantine and suffers from symptoms of illness can get a doctor’s note on sick leave.
If there are no symptoms, the employer can assign work in the home office.
If this is not possible, employees are released from the obligation to work.
However, continued payment of wages is still guaranteed in quarantine if you submit the quarantine order to the employer.
You can read more about working in quarantine here.
The
quarantine ends automatically after ten days.
When can you test yourself free?
Anyone who wants to test their release from isolation or quarantine before the end of the ten days can now do so after seven days.
For this, a
negative PCR or rapid
test must be available and
no symptoms
must appear.
According to the Federal Ministry of Health, a test result from an official test center must be available - a self-test or corona test at the employer is not sufficient.
Special regulations apply to certain professions, such as in the healthcare sector, and to students.
(as) *Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
