In all likelihood, employers will no longer have to offer a home office from July.
The corresponding obligation expires at the end of the month and, according to the federal government, there are no plans to extend it.
"The legal obligation to work from home is part of the Infection Protection Act, better known as the emergency brake, and will expire at the end of June," said Chancellor Helge Braun (CDU) to Wirtschaftswoche magazine.
The government had already announced at the end of May that an extension of the so-called federal emergency brake, which prescribes specific nationwide corona rules, is not planned.
According to the requirement, employers had to offer home office "if there are no compelling operational reasons".
The obligation to test remains
According to the Ministry of Labor, rules at the workplace are currently being discussed according to the home office obligation. The home office made an important contribution to infection protection, said a spokeswoman on Wednesday. According to your information, the ministry now wants to adapt and extend the Corona occupational health and safety ordinance, which sets area, distance and mask specifications for the workplace and would also expire at the end of the month.
A draft of this occupational health and safety regulation available to the Reuters news agency provides that the obligation of companies to offer their employees in companies a corona test twice a week should remain in place for the time being. On the other hand, there are no upper limits for employees in the company and the division into fixed teams. This is linked to the appeal to keep the number of employees in the rooms used by several people as low as possible. Hygiene and distance rules should continue to apply in the companies.
The reason given for the only gradual loosening is that one must continue to be careful precisely because of the virus variants that occur in other countries and that the Robert Koch Institute still speaks of a "high" risk in its current risk assessment. "A reassessment of the protective measures in the companies must therefore be carried out with great care, especially if not everyone in the company has had the opportunity to accept a vaccination offer," says the draft. The number of people vaccinated, recovered and tested is increasing continuously, but not to the same extent in all companies.
Regarding a possible new edition of the federal emergency brake, for example in autumn, Chancellery Minister Braun said that this must be made dependent on the vaccination rate and the effect of the vaccines and on the possible spread of further virus mutations. “If the numbers went up again, then you would have to decide quickly. Now there is no reason to prolong it acutely. "