The "Evidence Act" stipulates that employers must provide their employees with the contractual documents in writing.

Its wording is a reminder that it dates from 1995: "Evidence in electronic form is excluded." Now it is being changed at the suggestion of Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) - but not in the way the motto of the traffic light coalition "dare more progress" suggests: The digitization ban will be extended and tightened with a new threat of fines.

Employers who dare to provide their employees with the employment contract in digital form will in future be fined up to 2,000 euros per case.

Dietrich Creutzburg

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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The new set of rules has already made it a long way through the legislative bodies without public attention.

The agenda of the Bundestag provides for a decision on Thursday.

However, it is questionable whether it can still be called a joint effort by the traffic lights: their specialist politicians had worked out a compromise with digital solutions in the parliamentary process at the urging of the FDP.

But that suddenly tipped over, as can be heard from the coalition – after the intervention of the Ministry of Labour, which saw the objections of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) not sufficiently taken into account.

What entrepreneurs think of this is illustrated by a comment by Achim Berg, President of the digital association Bitkom: "Now the only thing missing is that the contracts have to be transported to the addressee by stagecoach." Private employers are forced to always print out employment contracts and associated documents but not only a step backwards in terms of digital policy.

"This contradicts the requirements of a modern working world that is concerned with conserving resources."

EU directive allows digital documents

Indeed, many experts expect that the new regulation will produce new mountains of paper;

while energy and raw material shortages suggest saving paper right now.

As can be heard elsewhere, the lack of paper is now even causing concern for the social security system - they have to make an effort to get enough indelible paper to at least issue all pension and Hartz IV notifications in accordance with the regulations.

But that is still a separate problem for the time being.

The impetus for the new paper law for employment contracts was an EU directive that sets new formal minimum requirements - which is intended to make it more difficult for employers to trick their employees.

In essence, this idea is not that controversial, it was already behind the old law in 1995.

But what is now heating up the minds is that the directive does allow digital documents.

But Heil left the option in his rules unused.

What remains is an extended paper requirement: So far, for example, it has not applied to short-term contracts of up to four weeks.

And employers are not threatened with fines for digital documents - only that they bear the burden of proof in the event of a dispute, not the employees.

In addition, the new law expands the catalog of information to be printed on paper and shortens the deadlines by which the printout must be available.

Exceptions for small businesses are not planned - and the complaints about new bureaucracy are all the more numerous.

This was also shown in the specialist hearing of the Bundestag on Monday.

Even the representatives of the labor judges expressed their astonishment that the law does not even allow digitization to begin with.

And the Federal Association of Labor Lawyers in Companies (BVAU) explained that the increase in bureaucracy also affects large companies.

There it has long been customary to store documents digitally;

and printouts are often signed digitally, but there is now a risk of a fine for this as well.

A company with 10,000 employees needs two additional clerks to fulfill everything.

But the law is too lax for the DGB.

He also calls for crowdworkers who apply for jobs on online platforms to be forced to use paper.

All of this is also annoying for the FDP, which is only allowed to choose between participation and coalition turmoil compared to red-green.

The majority of them will probably agree in the Bundestag, it said.

Your labor market policy spokesman Pascal Kober grudgingly states: "Unfortunately, in their decision against electronic transmission, the SPD and the Greens followed the concerns of the unions that employees in precarious sectors might be technically overwhelmed." But excluding everyone from digitization is not convincing.

Kober's FDP colleague Carl-Julius Cronenberg, who helped draft the temporarily planned compromise, is even clearer: he announced that he would not agree to this law.