Office work at the kitchen table at home is about to be revitalized.
In view of the worrying corona situation in Germany, the federal government is preparing to return to the obligation to work from home for employers.
The draft for the amendment of the Infection Protection Act submitted by the acting Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) contains such a passage.
Manfred Schäfers
Business correspondent in Berlin.
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Heike Goebel
Responsible editor for economic policy, responsible for “The order of the economy”.
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"In the case of office work or comparable activities, the employer has to offer employees the opportunity to carry out these activities in their home if there are no compelling operational reasons to prevent this," says Heils' formulation aid for the parliamentary groups, which is available to the FAZ.
It has not yet been voted on among the traffic light parties.
3 G in the workplace
While the employer will hardly be able to avoid allowing his people to work in their own four walls after the submission - he can only avert this obligation with "compelling reasons" - the employees will be able to decide relatively freely, as in the spring, whether they want to work from make use of this possibility. “The employees have to accept this offer, provided there are no reasons to the contrary.” Their reasons therefore do not have to be compelling. It is probably enough if they say that it doesn't work for them.
The possible new coalition of the SPD, Greens and FDP is also planning to introduce the 3-G rule in the workplace. That means: only those who have been vaccinated or recovered or who have a daily negative Corona test are still allowed to enter the company. The employers should be obliged to control the rule and for this purpose should be given the right to information that they have long demanded. The SPD seems to have given up its resistance, and trade unionists are also giving in.
With a right to information about the vaccination status of employees, politicians would fulfill an urgent wish of business. Employer President Rainer Dulger said in an interview with the FAZ that this was "a necessary prerequisite for being able to provide targeted, effective infection protection in the operational process". He also calls on politicians to formulate the 3-G rule “very precisely and with all the consequences” in order to avoid conflicts in companies.
She must make it clear that employees who refused to take a test or the vaccination have no claim to wages for the lost work. You should not be rewarded with paid time off, warns Dulger, who is standing for re-election this Monday in the Federal Association of German Employers' Associations (BDA). However, because of the skyrocketing infection numbers, the association canceled its traditional employer day in Berlin on Tuesday at short notice.
The German Chamber of Commerce and Industry also warns the SPD, Greens and FDP against imposing corona protective measures on companies that are not practicable. Companies must be able to integrate the 3-G rule unbureaucratically into day-to-day operations in order to optimally protect employees and customers, demanded President Peter Adrian. This includes the obligation to provide information about the corona status of the workforce. There is even encouragement from the trade unions, which have so far resisted it. Employees can be expected to prove that they have been vaccinated, recovered or tested, said Frank Werneke, chairman of the Verdi service union, the German press agency.
The Greens co-chairman Robert Habeck also campaigned at the weekend to include train traffic in the 3-G rule.
Passengers would then have to be vaccinated, recovered or tested.
The grand coalition examined such a requirement in the summer, but rejected it as disproportionate and impractical.
“Yes, rail travel must also become safer.
From my point of view, 3G should apply here, we will have to talk about that, ”Habeck said to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
He received support from SPD health politician Karl Lauterbach.