Due to rapidly increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases over the past few weeks, an amendment of the German Infection Protection Act (the Act) was passed last week. The amendments will enter into force on 24 November 2021.
The Act will drastically change the German approach towards COVID-19-related office entry restrictions (requiring proof of vaccination, recovery, or daily testing). It will also introduce a mandatory principle of “work from home wherever possible.” In particular, the following nationwide obligations will come into force for employees and employers in Germany:
Employers must offer their employees who perform office work or comparable activities the opportunity to work from home, unless there are “compelling operational reasons” for not doing so.
The Act itself does not specify what constitutes such “compelling operational reasons”. However, based on additional legislative materials, such “compelling operational reasons” may exist in particular where employees working from home would materially affect (a) business continuity (e.g., processing of incoming physical mail, work on physical information technology (IT) infrastructure, or similar), (b) special operational data protection requirements, or (c) the protection of trade secrets.
The employer’s lack of proper IT equipment or similar organizational shortcomings will generally not be a sufficient reason for not offering the ability to work from home. If at all, then such circumstances might...
A Wixom, Michigan, business accused of making false statements to obtain a loan has agreed to pay a settlement of just over $1.5 million after it was sued by the federal government, according to th...