Employees in quarantine - and again the state abandons those affected

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The Bavarian industrial adhesive manufacturer Delo was spared a large wave of infections.

Only around 60 of the total of 700 employees in Germany have had to be in quarantine since the beginning of the pandemic - either because they infected themselves or because they were classified as contact persons for those infected with corona.

Companies like hers are still suffering damage, says Delo managing director Sabine Herold.

If the health department imposes a quarantine, some employees can no longer work, especially in industry.

Employers usually have to continue to pay their wages anyway.

After all: the entrepreneur can later have the state reimbursed for the loss.

This is what the Infection Protection Act provides.

"But the process is not only complicated, it is also time-consuming," complains Herold.

Chaos in responsibilities

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Several pages would have to be filled out per employee, and strict documentation requirements would have to be provided.

And there is chaos in terms of responsibilities.

The state already knows a lot, for example about the quarantine times for employees who have been ordered by the health department.

“The data is there,” says Herold.

While the Delo boss wants to get back what she is entitled to by law, many companies are apparently not even trying.

From the beginning of May 2020 to the end of January this year, only slightly more than 360,000 applications for wage reimbursement were received via an online portal of the responsible authorities.

This emerges from a response from the federal government to a small request from the FDP parliamentary group, which WELT is exclusively available to.

Source: WORLD infographic

Most of the applications, almost 115,000, were therefore received in North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state.

Bremen recorded the fewest with just under 2500. Measured by the size of the population, most of the applications were received in Saxony-Anhalt - with a good 1800 per 100,000 employed.

Very few were counted with less than 600 in Bremen.

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On a cross-national average, employers only applied for around 1,100 employees per 100,000 employees for the state to reimburse wage costs for employees who were unable to work due to official orders.

Regulation also applies to affected parents

The group of beneficiaries is likely to be much larger.

At the end of the seventh calendar week alone, more than 300,000 people were in a prescribed quarantine, as figures from the think tank Risklayer show based on official data.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, more than 2.3 million infected people have been reported in this country - the health authorities have usually imposed a quarantine of several days for them and all contact persons.

That means: Anyone who could not continue working in the home office was strictly prohibited from working.

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The legislature has created the possibility of reimbursement for precisely such cases.

According to Paragraph 56 of the Infection Protection Act, employers have a right to reimbursement: You have to make an advance payment and can then repeat the amount.

Last spring, the regulation was expanded to include affected parents.

Employees who have to look after their children due to official school closings are also included.

If they cannot find any other care option, their employers can get the money back for the lost work - but only 67 percent and a maximum of 2016 euros per month.

"There is no recognizable overall strategy"

However, the federal government's figures only relate to applications that have been submitted via the specially launched online portal.

The number of applications actually received is therefore likely to be even higher.

Because not all federal states are participating in the portal.

Thuringia has only been participating in the online portal since December.

Bavaria, Berlin, Hamburg and Saxony still have their own procedures.

And the federal government has no overview of that.

"Due to the responsibility of the federal states, applications in paper form and in the non-participating countries are not recorded in the system," the answer said.

The opposition has therefore reproached the federal government: "As with the economic aid, it does not seem to be interested in the reality of those affected," says FDP right-wing politician Katrin Helling-Plahr.

"Once again, there is no recognizable overall strategy to combat the pandemic and its consequences."

The patchwork of responsibilities is symptomatic of the entire action of the federal government.

The FDP politician fears a further loss of trust of the citizens in the decided measures.

“The federal government should ask itself what signal it is sending to those entitled,” says Helling-Plahr.

The legal politician calls on the federal government to create unbureaucratic and efficient help through the Infection Protection Act.

The applications are tough

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For companies operating across Germany, the reimbursement can turn out to be the gauntlet - especially where the administrations are not connected to the common online portal.

Theoretically, more than 60 different authorities across Germany deal with the processing of the applications.

In North Rhine-Westphalia it is the large regional associations, in Bavaria the administrative districts, and in Lower Saxony each individual district is responsible.

But even for companies with only one location, the patchwork quilt has a consequence: "Because every federal state and administrative district has a different solution, our payroll software manufacturer has given up and not adjusted the program," says Delo managing director Herold.

The effort is too great.

The companies would therefore have to submit the application manually.

And that is comprehensive.

Bosses have to fill out six pages per employee.

Including all personal data of the employee as well as information on earnings and deductions.

Which insurance premiums were paid during the prohibition of activity?

Was the employee entitled to winter allowance?

In addition, employers must explain in detail why an employee could not work from home.

In addition, there is evidence such as wage certificates and the quarantine confirmation from the health department.

"You can imagine that the small company is overwhelmed," says Herold.

"They would probably have to have the tax advisor do it, which costs money every time."

There has not yet been a refund

After all, the number of reimbursements applied for has recently increased, as the figures for several federal states show.

In Baden-Württemberg in January and December alone, about as many applications were received as in all previous months combined.

In Hesse, too, the volume was highest in the past two months.

This is mainly due to the strong increase in the number of corona cases since November - significantly more people had to go back to quarantine or look after their children.

Delo managing director Herold has submitted 13 applications since November.

Nothing happened.

“We didn't even get a response, let alone get a refund,” says Herold.

The entrepreneur can take her time with the other applications anyway.

"Due to the large number of applications received, a processing time of several months can currently be expected," explains the Upper Bavarian administrative district responsible for Delo.

After all, the deadlines are generous: employers must have submitted the reimbursement applications no later than twelve months after the employee's absence.