Ministerial draft on short-time work during Corona crisis

In view of the rapid spread of the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in Germany, many employers are currently announcing short-time work in order to be able to react to operational work absences caused by restrictions in the supply chain and production as well as restrictions on operational activities due to official measures. Against this background, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has made special arrangements to facilitate short-time work by means of a ministerial draft passed on March 18^th 2020. The aim is to mitigate the effects of the new coronavirus on the German labour market. In particular, employees are to retain their jobs and employers are to be relieved. The ministerial draft proposes that the regulation will take effect retroactively from March 1^st2020.

First of all, access to short-time work shall be facilitated by reducing the quorum of employees affected by work loss from the original one third to ten percent. In the future, employers shall therefore be able to apply for short-time allowance at an earlier stage. In addition, employers shall be relieved financially by not having to pay the social security contributions attributable to the short-time allowance during the period of short-time work. These shall now be paid in full by the Federal Employment Agency. Finally, it shall also be made possible for temporary employees to receive short-time allowance.

The special regulations are proposed to initially apply for a limited period until the end of 2020.

Pusch Wahlig Workplace Law has launched a tech-enabled business line with products for short-time work on 19.03.2020! Fixed price products on the subject of short-time work for micro and small companies!