{"id":2322,"date":"2020-04-20T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pwwl.de\/en\/?p=2322"},"modified":"2020-06-15T16:56:43","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T14:56:43","slug":"new-measures-for-uniform-work-safety-in-times-of-the-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwwl.de\/en\/new-measures-for-uniform-work-safety-in-times-of-the-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"New measures for uniform work safety in times of the coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Federal Government has already decided on\n15.04.2020 on first measures to slowly but gradually ease the social and\neconomic restrictions that existed until then. On April 16, 2020, Federal\nMinister of Labor Hubertus Heil, jointly with Dr. Stefan Hussy, Managing\nDirector of the German Social Accident Insurance, announced new standards for\nworkplace safety in times of a pandemic. These contain standardized, clear and\nbinding rules for all employers to prevent a renewed exponential spread of the\nvirus. At the same time, the aim is also to provide the necessary safety at\nwork for people who are gradually returning to work. Dr. Stefan Hussy also\npromised to support smaller companies that, for example, are unable to call on\ntheir own in-house specialists for occupational safety. In the coming days, the\naccident insurance institutions will supplement the general regulations with\nadditional industry-specific information and advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the standards, employers should still\nallow their employees to work from home if possible. However, if this is not\npossible or at least not reasonable over a longer period of time due to the\nnature of the work, the employee must follow an instruction from the employer\nto work on site again. A (legal) claim to a home office does not exist, unless\notherwise regulated in individual contracts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In return, however, the employer must take certain\nprotective measures for his employees. This already derives from his general\nduty of care for his employees, which arises, among other things, from \u00a7 618\nBGB and is specified, for example, by the Occupational Safety and Health Act\n(ArbSchG). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Occupational Safety and Health Act,\nthe employer is obliged at all times to assess the risks to the safety and\nhealth of his employees at the workplace and subsequently take appropriate\nprotective measures. The Federal Minister of Labor has now presented key points\non how these protective measures should currently be carried out with regard to\nthe containment of Covid-19: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>As is already the case in the public sector, the\nsafety distance of 1.50 m must be maintained at the workplace. To this end,\naccess regulations are to be established and barriers and markings are to be\nused. If such a minimum distance is not possible due to the nature of the job,\nthe employer must provide face masks which cover nose and mouth.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>In this context, the employer is also obliged to\nensure that his employees have as little direct contact with each other as\npossible. This can be achieved, for example, by adjusting attendance times in\nthe office and regular shift changes. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Persons with typical symptoms of Covid-19 should leave\nthe workplace immediately and stay at home until a possible suspicion is\nclarified by a doctor. The employer needs to cooperate with the local health\nauthorities and inform them if a suspicion is confirmed as well as identify and\nisolate other possible infected persons. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>In addition, the employer must provide washing\nfacilities or disinfectant dispensers to ensure proper hand hygiene. Shorter\ncleaning intervals for common premises and work equipment must also be provided.\n<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The employer needs to take special measures to protect\nrisk groups.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>When implementing these measures, it should not be\nforgotten that the employer is, of course, still subject to labor law rules\nwhen introducing these measures, whether they are of a contractual nature in\nrelation to individual employees or of a collective labor law nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In companies with a works council, it must be noted that the works council has a mandatory right of participation in health protection regulations pursuant to \u00a7 87 para. 1 no. 7 Works Constitution Act (BetrVG), and must therefore be included in the decision-making process. The measures can also be accompanied by the works doctor or the specialist for occupational safety.  For all regulations, it is also advisable to initially limit the duration of the regulations and to review their effectiveness after a certain period of time. This allows the measures to be flexibly adapted to the changed nationwide and\/or current situation in the company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By Eva Wi\u00dfler and Annika Ki\u00dfener<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Federal Government has already decided on 15.04.2020 on first measures to slowly but gradually ease the social and economic restrictions that existed until then. On April 16, 2020, Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil, jointly with Dr. Stefan Hussy, Managing Director of the German Social Accident Insurance, announced new standards for workplace safety in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[98,112],"class_list":["post-2322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlights","tag-covid-19","tag-occupational-safety"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwwl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwwl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwwl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwwl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwwl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2322"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pwwl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2326,"href":"https:\/\/pwwl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2322\/revisions\/2326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwwl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwwl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwwl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwwl.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}