Maundy Thursday and Holy Saturday 2021 were defined as "rest days".
Work is only allowed in exceptional cases.
Do employees now have up to two additional days off?
Berlin - Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country leaders agreed in tough negotiations to tighten the corona restrictions.
In order to break through the dynamism of increasing numbers of infections, the federal and state governments want a very extensive reduction in all contacts on Easter days.
Part of the implementation of the hard lockdown at Easter is that Maundy Thursday and Holy Saturday were defined as "rest days" for the first time in history.
In plain language, this means that the same rules apply on both days as on Sundays and public holidays.
An exception is grocery stores, which are allowed to open on Holy Saturday.
The aim of the measure is to extend the Easter break, which many companies take anyway, in order to reduce the number of contacts.
Corona lockdown Easter 2021: Who is allowed to work on Sundays and public holidays?
As is customary on Sundays and public holidays, work should only be done in certain professions this year on Maundy Thursday and Holy Saturday.
According to the Working Hours Act, this includes vital work such as emergency paramedics, paramedics, paramedics, doctors, health and nurses and firefighters.
But also employees at music performances, theater performances, in churches, at sporting events, at radio, in transport companies or in the energy and water supply are exempt from the work ban.
If you have to go to work on Maundy Thursday, you can at least look forward to more money.
"For employees who still have to work, that would mean surcharges," said Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) on Tuesday.
Lockdown Easter 2021: Do “rest days” mean additional days off for employees?
But what about the rest of the workers?
Can some employees hope for up to two additional days off?
That has not yet been said.
"The decision of the federal government and the state leaders to define Maundy Thursday and Holy Saturday as 'rest days', like all resolutions in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, needs to be implemented in state law, as happens in Bavaria in the 'Bavarian Infection Protection Ordinance'.
This has not yet happened, ”says lawyer Patrick Rosenow, who also works in labor law.
Rosenow continues: “In general, there is a ban on work on Sundays and public holidays, which results from Section 9 of the Working Hours Act (ArbZG).
If the two planned 'rest days' are defined as 'Sundays and public holidays', the employees would not have to work on these two days and would not have to spend any vacation days.
We have to wait for more details. "
Corona lockdown Easter 2021: Bavarian government changes regulation
This means that employees will first find out whether they will have additional days off or have to take vacation.
However, the Bavarian state government has already taken one step to implement the extended “rest days”.
The Bavarian Infection Protection Measures Ordinance is supplemented by the following passage: “Businesses, shops, companies and authorities will remain closed on April 1, 2021 (Maundy Thursday) and on April 3, 2021 (Holy Saturday) as on the Easter holidays;
on Saturday, April 3, 2021, only the grocery store will be open. "
List of rubric lists: © Fotostand / K. Schmitt via www.imago-images.de
