Exceptions to the Working Hours Act as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic

The new Section 14 para. 4 of the Working Hours Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz – ArbZG), which was inserted with the statutory social protection package (Act to facilitate access to social security and to the deployment and protection of social service providers on account of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2e), authorises the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to issue statutory ordinances in order to permit uniform nationwide exemptions from the requirements of working hours legislation. Based on this, the COVID-19 Working Hours Regulation was issued on 07 April, 2020. This regulation provides the following essential regulations, initially limited until 31 July, 2020:

In its decision of November 15, 2019 (Ref.: 9 Sa 99/18), the Regional Labour Court of Baden-Württemberg dealt, among other things, with the question of whether and under what conditions the health insurance fund of an employee can assert claims for continued remuneration against his employer within the specified period.

Digitisation is also proceeds in labour law. However, it remains to be seen whether the electronic certificate of incapacity for work (eAU) actually goes hand in hand with the desired goal of reducing bureaucracy and thus relieving the burden on employers. 

In corporate groups and companies with different establishments, there are often cross-company and/or cross-establishment functions. It is not uncommon, for example, that the head of a department who is assigned to the head office of the company and also has his actual workplace there at the same time is the direct supervisor of a manager assigned to another establishment and thus indirectly also is authorized to give instructions to the employees subordinated to this manager. Such a cross-company or cross-establishment organization is also called a matrix structure.