Test compulsory for everyone? The smug answer of the economy lets look deep

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In the Bundestag in Berlin, there have been three quick test routes since last week: One is set up in the Reichstag, two in the surrounding buildings, where members of parliament have their offices and the committees meet.

The result: 1535 tests were carried out in the last week of the meeting, all of which were negative.

Every employee who is in the house is offered the opportunity to be tested once a week by "medically trained staff using rapid antigen tests or to test themselves using certified self-tests," said the Bundestag administration.

A test obligation for everyone who wants to enter the building is currently not planned.

This means that the Bundestag - not only the economy - falls short of the ideas of Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU).

It was typical Merkel formulations that she chose on Sunday evening in the ARD program "Anne Will" to express her displeasure with the efforts of the economy in the fight against pandemics so far.

Companies would also have to offer their employees regular tests, as the trade associations had promised in a voluntary commitment to forestall any compulsion to test.

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She was "unfortunately not yet satisfied with the enthusiasm for implementing the voluntary commitment," said Merkel.

Her conclusion: "Then we have to regulate it by law, and relatively soon." How she wants to implement this, she makes it clear: two tests per week for every employee - not just as an offer, but "probably mandatory".

The same applies to the home office.

Here, too, the federal government has so far relied on the cooperation of companies to enable their employees to work from home wherever possible.

But even that is by no means supposed to be implemented everywhere - probably also because there are no control options.

At the beginning of April, Angela Merkel wants to know exactly how many companies are offering their employees tests.

The government will also make its own surveys.

There is already a date until a good decision can be reached: If nothing changes, the federal cabinet wants to decide on an obligation on April 13th.

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For April 8, Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) has invited more than 40 associations to another “Economic Summit”.

The topic will certainly be discussed there too.

Politicians now want answers.

Business is resisting compulsory tests

In business, people still don't want to know about mandatory testing.

Employer President Rainer Dulger even smugly accepted the Chancellor's formulation: It is by no means up to the companies if they do not test sufficiently, rather some tests are probably stuck in the blocked Suez Canal.

“But our enthusiasm will not dissuade us from that,” said Dulger.

Just a few days after the appeal and the voluntary commitment of the associations, large and small companies had significantly expanded their testing efforts.

“We act even though some companies, whose employees and families are currently facing very difficult economic challenges,” said Dulger and then handed out a tip against the state: “We don't shy away from comparison with the testing efforts of the public sector, for example in administrations and in schools. "

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A survey by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) last week showed that it is not just about availability, but also about the cost of the tests.

21 percent of the companies surveyed stated that they could not cover the costs given the poor economic situation.

Only 19 percent of the companies stated in this survey that they already offer tests for their employees, another 28 percent stated that they intend to do so at least soon.

Overall, however, that is not even half of all companies.

Dulger emphasized that it is in the company's own interests to ensure safe jobs with tests.

In addition, a test law does not create more protection, but more bureaucracy, more costs, less initiative and a bunch of unresolved legal and organizational questions.

There are now numerous of these own initiatives.

The insurance company Talanx, for example, has been offering self-tests to each of its 11,000 employees nationwide for two weeks.

"Every employee received a pack of five tests," announced the company.

Associated with this is the request that everyone who wants to come to the office tests themselves at home beforehand.

For larger face-to-face events such as the company's general meeting at the beginning of May, a test road will be set up in the underground car park at the headquarters in Hanover.

At service companies like Talanx, there is little concern that they will no longer receive tests in the coming weeks.

Depending on the location, 80 to 90 percent of the employees are in the home office anyway.

The consumption of tests for office visits is therefore kept within limits.

The situation is different for companies whose employees cannot work from their home desks.

Craft: test kits often not available

Handicraft President Hans Peter Wollseifer said that the companies implement what is possible for them.

“But it is also true that tests often fail because test kits are not available.

This must then not be at the expense of the companies. "

The responsible Federal Minister for Labor and Social Affairs, Hubertus Heil (SPD), has not yet decided whether companies will be forced to test.

"So far it has not been decided whether there will be compulsory testing," says his ministry.

The federal government has started to evaluate the self-commitment of the economy and has set up its own monitoring.

The final results would be available in time for the upcoming Prime Minister's Conference on April 12th.

The federal cabinet meets a day later.

A corresponding passage would then have to be included in the Corona occupational health and safety ordinance.

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Concerns that every employee will be forced to take a test in the future are currently unfounded.

So far, no employee can be denied access to his workplace if he does not have himself tested.

Previously applicable laws do not provide for this.

“Compulsory testing for employees is not possible on the basis of the applicable occupational health and safety law,” said Heils Ministry.

There is also no basis under labor law that in principle denies employees access to the business premises if they refuse a corona test.

In nursing homes and hospitals for the elderly, tests were ordered by employers with reference to the protection concerns of the nurses.

But even these orders were overturned in the first lawsuits.