News in times of Corona

Despite Corona, we are there for you by phone or email!

In urgent cases, we also offer personal meetings - of course subject to strict hygiene measures!

Employers register short-time work, the net income of families falls and the house blessing hangs wrong at home because the children are not allowed to go to school / daycare and are not allowed to meet their friends. In addition, parents are currently suffering from severe financial pressure or even existential fears.

Here are some tips in special areas:

As a lawyer well versed in both insolvency and labor law, I will be happy to advise you comprehensively, both in and out of court!

Here I give you a brief overview of the most important questions as an employee:

• Stay at home if you are afraid of Corona: If an employee stays away from work because he is afraid of being infected with the corona virus, this can result in a warning or even termination. Because this constitutes a refusal to work. The employee is only entitled to refuse performance if the exercise of his activity is associated with an objectively significant risk to health and life. A mere risk of infection is not enough.
• Continued payment of wages in quarantine: If an official quarantine or observation has been ordered for an employee and he is able to work in the home office due to his health condition and the available work equipment, then he is even obliged to do so due to his contractual fiduciary duty. If, on the other hand, the employee is unable to do so, or if the authority has even imposed a ban on professional activity, the employer is usually obliged to continue paying wages for up to 6 weeks in the amount of the earnings. The employer has the opportunity to apply for a reimbursement from the health authorities. From the seventh week onwards, the employee is entitled to loss of earnings under the Infection Protection Act against the health authorities in the amount of sick pay.
• Order of home work by the employer: Whether the employer provides the employee with a home office and thus permits home work depends on the respective company. If the company has not made any statements on this, in case of doubt the place of work agreed in the employment contract applies, i.e. usually the company. If the employee stays in the home office without authorization, this can result in a warning or even termination of the employment relationship. Within the scope of his right to issue instructions, the employer can order home work, provided that the prerequisites for this are in place. If necessary, he is even obliged to do so due to his duty of care towards the employee.
• Temporary closure: If the employer is unable to employ his employees due to failing supply chains or official measures, they are released from their duty to work, while the employer remains obliged to continue to pay the wages due to his operational risk according to § 615 sentence 3 BGB to pay.
• Short-time work allowance: Under the conditions of § 96 SGB III, namely that there is a significant temporary loss of work for economic reasons or due to an unavoidable event and this is unavoidable, the Federal Employment Agency pays short-time work allowance. In the short term, the legislature made it easier for companies to access short-time work benefits. NEW is that it is currently sufficient when 10% of employees are affected by a gross monthly salary drop of at least 10% (otherwise a third). In that case, any social security contributions for lost working hours will be covered by the employment agency. Another new feature is that temporary workers can also take short-time work and receive short-time allowance. The loss of working hours must be unavoidable and temporary for the company in accordance with Sections 95 to 99 of SGB II and must be reported to the Employment Agency in writing. You can find the corresponding form under the following link: https://www.arbeitsagentur.de/daten/beispiel-kug101_ba013134.pdf. The short-time work allowance is 60% of the lump-sum net loss of earnings in the relevant calendar month, 67% for at least 1 child in the household. The maximum subscription period is now from 12 to 24 months. >>> NEWS <<<: On April 23rd, 2020 the grand coalition agreed to gradually increase the short-time allowance. The increase in short-time allowance is made dependent on the length of the compulsory break and on the fact that at least 50 percent of the regular working hours are absent. From the 4th month, 70 or 77 percent (parents), from the 7th month 80 or 87 percent of the loss of wages would be paid.
• No short-time allowance for mini-jobs: Since short-time work benefits are benefits from unemployment insurance and these are not used by mini-jobbers, they cannot receive short-time work benefits.
• Effects on company pension schemes: If a company is on short-time work, this initially has no influence on the agreement on deferred compensation, it remains in effect. As before, the employer pays the converted remuneration components to the insurance company and pays the corresponding legally binding subsidy. Only when the work is reduced to zero as part of short-time work is no longer paid by the employer to the insurance company, since the short-time work benefit is a wage replacement benefit from unemployment insurance. In the case of a purely employer-financed company pension, the further payment depends on whether the benefit is linked to the amount of the remuneration. If necessary, only a correspondingly reduced employer contribution is paid. If the employer's contribution is independent of the amount of the wage, the employer is usually obliged to continue paying even if the workload is reduced to zero. If there is no such obligation, the employer can make the insurance contribution-free. In addition to the employer, the employee can also exempt the insurance himself, but this usually results in a reduction in the later pension benefit. Another option would be deferment of contributions. In this case, there is no reduction in benefits, as the contributions must be paid in one amount at the end of the deferral period.
• Business trips to risk areas: Provided that the employer carefully weighs up the operational issues and the interests of the employee, he may in principle, on the basis of his right to issue instructions, order business trips to risk areas, whereby it must be said that the employee's health is very important. In general, however, the employee cannot refuse the business trip. If he refuses despite justified instructions, he can receive a warning or even notice. The only exception applies to official travel warnings from the Federal Foreign Office: in this case, the employee is entitled to oppose the business trip. Then he does not have to fear sanctions under labor law. If the employee is already on a business trip in a risk area, the employer must observe the situation in the affected area, in particular possible travel warnings, due to his contractual duty of care. This applies all the more if the employee is generally active in the risk area. If necessary, cooperation with the Federal Foreign Office and home work may be required. If this is not possible, the employee must be fetched back from the affected area. Overall, the individual case assessment is based on the extent to which the area is affected and any previous illnesses of the employee.
• Ordering overtime and interruption of vacation due to the corona crisis: If some colleagues have already contracted the virus or if there are staff shortages for other reasons, the employer may order overtime (within the legal working hours). However, the employee only has to break off a vacation if there is work that cannot be postponed and which can only be carried out by him. Here, too, the employer must carefully consider the decision and may only bring the employee back from vacation if it is absolutely necessary and unavoidable.