The federal government softened a new Corona health and safety ordinance shortly before publication in several points.
This is shown by documents that are available to BuzzFeed News Germany.
The regulation is intended to make companies safer for their employees, but remains vague on many points.
Federal politicians from the Left Party and the Greens as well as the German Federation of Trade Unions have sharply criticized the new regulation.
They fear that authorities will not be able to enforce the new rules against companies.
Almost all areas of life in Germany are subject to strict hygiene rules, only the work continues to a large extent.
Many people still do not work in the home office, although they have the opportunity.
Numerous people are still complaining - also in discussions with BuzzFeed News * - about inadequate hygiene precautions in the workplace.
The new Corona occupational health and safety ordinance of the Federal Ministry of Labor should change that.
A first draft of January 18, 2021 provided for a whole series of rules for the protection of workers, which, however, had partially disappeared three days later - when the draft was passed in the cabinet.
The FAZ had already reported on some aspects.
Numerous points of the occupational health and safety ordinance have been deleted
Among other things, a catalog of fines disappeared from the draft.
Mask requirements for all employees who leave their jobs have also been removed.
Canteen and break rooms can now be used after all.
The regulation now only applies until March 15 - not until the end of the pandemic.
And there are no more tightenings in the event of a high coronavirus incidence.
Initially, it was planned that larger operations would have to offer regular rapid antigen tests for their employees with an incidence of 200 or more.
All of this has been omitted in the final version.
(The final version of the new Corona Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance is available here. We are not publishing the draft of January 18 because it is not clear whether the version available to us can be used to draw conclusions about our source.)
At the request of BuzzFeed News, the Federal Ministry of Labor did not want to evaluate the elimination of the strict measures.
The ministry did not answer a question about contacts with employers' associations between the first draft on January 18th and the softened approval on January 21st.
The Federal Association of German Employers' Associations also did not comment on possible contacts in the days before the rules were passed.
Left, Greens and DGB: Regulation leaves a lot of leeway for employers: inside
The German Federation of Trade Unions, the left-wing parliamentary group and the Greens not only criticize the softening of the final version, but also the imprecise wording in the regulation.
These left the employer a lot of leeway and made effective control by the authorities more difficult.
For example, the ordinance states that meetings between several people must be reduced “to the minimum necessary for operations” and that employers must take “all suitable technical and organizational measures” to reduce contacts.
What this means in concrete terms and how an inspector can prove a violation of these formulations is unclear.
And home office must only be offered to employees if “there are no compelling operational reasons to prevent this”.
Even the use of masks remains vague: Whether simple surgical masks or FFP2 masks are used and in which situations is left up to the employer.
Left-wing politician Krellmann calls for deterrent fines and a legal right to work from home
Jutta Krellmann from the left-wing parliamentary group is a member of the Labor and Social Affairs Committee and calls on BuzzFeed News for “a Corona occupational health and safety ordinance that deserves its name.
This includes: a legal right to work from home, mandatory infection protection at every workplace without exceptions and dissuasive fines in the event of violations. “It is time for the state to finally seriously control workplaces.
"For the time of the pandemic, it must also be possible to call on forces from other areas for comprehensive occupational safety checks," writes Krellmann.
Beate Müller-Gemmeke, spokeswoman for labor rights of the Greens in the Bundestag, also criticized the regulation.
"It takes far too long for the occupational safety and health authorities to order home office," writes Müller-Gemmeke.
"It is also impossible to understand how quickly the original plans in the draft bill were withdrawn."
In response to a request from BuzzFeed News, the German Trade Union Federation (DGB) writes that it is pleased about the high level of attention paid to occupational safety issues.
However, the result of the consultations on corona protection is a compromise.
Now we have to see whether the rules help to reduce the number of infections.
"If that is not the case, of course we have to talk again about how the Covid occupational health and safety rule can be adapted and improved," writes DGB board member Anja Piel.
Internal evaluation of the German trade union federation with harsh criticism
In an internal assessment that BuzzFeed News has received, the DGB is much clearer.
The specifications are "very imprecise and formulated in general," it says.
It is "not clearly regulated which specific protective measures apply and are used in the control by the occupational health and safety authorities (...)." Overall, the ordinance contains "poorly manageable requirements".
And: The union fears that the “under-staffed authorities” will not adequately control the regulation.
“It can be assumed that unwilling employers will shirk the obligation that has now been created,” writes the DGB in its internal assessment.
"There is no clearly regulated right for employees to request work from home."
The Ministry of Labor defended the regulation in a closed meeting of the Bundestag Committee on Labor and Social Affairs on Wednesday morning of this week.
At the meeting, the Ministry of Labor pointed out, among other things, that fines of up to 30,000 euros would be possible in the event of violations.
When asked by BuzzFeed News, the ministry said that fines can usually only be imposed after a two-step process: After an initial violation, inspectors can write an order.
They can only impose a fine if, during a renewed on-site inspection, they discover that the violation has not been remedied.
According to the ministry, workers who are not allowed to work from home by their employers should “first seek a discussion with the employer and, if necessary, approach the works council” before contacting the supervisory authority.
Health and safety officials: skeptical on the inside: authorities cannot adequately examine violations by employers
In an interview with BuzzFeed News Germany, several experienced occupational safety officers consider it very unlikely that the authorities will be able to systematically monitor this regulation.
"If you ask in three months how many such fines have been issued because of the Corona regulation - I am sure you will hardly find one," says a supervisor who has worked in occupational safety for decades.
Another health and safety officer had bad experiences just a few days after the new rules were introduced.
There is currently a lot of headwind from employers who are looking for a number of excuses to refuse home office requests.
These ranged from “We don't have a cloud” to “The server's capacities are insufficient, so people have to stay here.” The occupational safety and health authorities would then have to check these exceptions individually.
“They don't have time for that.
And even if they do, it takes months for something like this to happen. "
Occupational health and safety in Germany has been systematically weakened over the years
Over the years, the federal states responsible for occupational safety have cut back on skilled personnel or missed the necessary new appointments.
Companies are now only inspected every 25 years on average.
Ten years ago, controls were still carried out every eleven years.
This is shown by a response from the federal government to a small request from Left MP Jutta Krellmann at the end of April 2020. The number of over 3,000 civil servants in the health and safety authorities of the federal states has remained the same, but their range of tasks has increased.
In the Corona crisis, the occupational safety and health workers are making even fewer surprising checks than before and are often withdrawn for other tasks, a BuzzFeed News research from the spring showed.
"In order to meet the requirements of the shutdown, the company tours were initially limited to what was absolutely necessary," wrote the federal states in a joint response to a request from BuzzFeed News.
Research by BuzzFeed News had already shown in recent years how problematic job cuts are in the federal states.
For example, the number of state medical doctors responsible for occupational health and safety has fallen from 160 to less than 70 across Germany over the past two decades.
In some federal states, a single doctor is responsible for monitoring the health of all employees across the country.
There has not been a single state commercial doctor in Bremen for years.
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