Special Coronavirus

The coronavirus continues to spread: The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the virus outbreak a pandemic. A pandemic is an unrestricted outbreak of disease that is capable of causing serious illness and spreading easily from person to person. Accordingly, Bavaria and Saarland have decid-ed in the night of 13 March 2020 to close all schools and day-care centres from Monday 16 March 2020 until the beginning of the Easter break on 4 April 2020. It is to be expected that the remaining federal states will follow this example. Furthermore, almost all major events have been cancelled. Infected employees or those who are suspected of being infected with the coronavirus are in quarantine due to official orders.

At present, a considerable spread of the respiratory disease COVID-19, which is caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus), can also be ob-served in Germany. The World Health Organisation (WHO) had already de-clared a health emergency on 30 Janu-ary 2020. According to the WHO, the coronavirus is therefore an exceptional occurrence that is serious, sudden, unusual or unexpected, poses a threat to human health, even across national borders, and requires a prompt interna­ tional response.

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.

An IT employee is obliged to protect sensitive customer data and must not misuse it for other purposes, according to the Labour Court of Siegburg, see ruling of January 15^th, 2020 – 3 Ca 1793/19.

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. 

Are other employee representatives to be involved in the consultation procedure in addition to the works council?

In its ruling of July 11^th, 2019 (Case No. 21 Sa 2100/18), the Berlin-Brandenburg state labour court (LAG Berlin Brandenburg) declared the dismissal of a severely disabled employee for operational reasons as part of a mass dismissal in insolvency (Air Berlin) invalid, among other reasons, because the employer had involved the works council in the consultation procedure, but not the Body for Severely Disabled Employees.

On September 20^th, 2019, the Federal Council agreed to adapt numerous national provisions to the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The amendments entered into force on November 26^th, 2019.

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.

Hardly any other area of labour law was as comprehensively and as fundamentally the subject of jurisdiction as vacation law this year alone. Not only Erfurt, but increasingly also Luxembourg is the source of these influences.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy submitted the draft of the Third Bureaucracy Relief Act (BEG III), with which, among other things, the electronic certificate of incapacity for work (eAU) is to be introduced nationwide.