Notification on the Employment of Severely Disabled Employees Due Until March 31, 2023
Employers who employ an annual average of at least 20 employees per month are required by law to employ at least 5 % severely disabled persons.
Employers who employ an annual average of at least 20 employees per month are required by law to employ at least 5 % severely disabled persons.
More than two months earlier than originally planned, the few remaining rules currently still in place to contain the risk of infection with the coronavirus in the workplace are due to expire. On January 25, 2023, the Federal Cabinet decided to repeal the SARS-CoV-2 Occupational Health and Safety Ordinance, which has been unchanged and in force since October 1, on February 2, 2023. This will end the special regulations for dealing with the coronavirus in the workplace. The reason given for this is that the number of new infections has been falling steadily for weeks despite the wintry temperatures – fortunately, the feared winter wave does not seem to have occurred.
On January 1, 2023, Germany will begin to implement digitization processes in the statutory health insurance system. As a result, the paper certificate of incapacity for work, previously known as the “yellow certificate”, which doctors usually issue to an employee to certify their sickness, will largely be a relic of the past. From now on, employers will be informed electronically by the relevant statutory health insurance fund about the incapacity to work of employees who are insured under the statutory health insurance.
After the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on the issue of the limitation period for paid leave entitlements by way of a preliminary ruling in September, the German Federal Labor Court has now also ruled on this matter.
On September 13, 2022, the German Federal Labor Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht) already ruled (1 ABR 22/21) that employers are obliged to record the working hours of their employees (we reported). The reasoning for the decision was finally published a few days ago: According to the Federal Labor Court, a comprehensive obligation to record working hours cannot be derived from the Working Hours Act; however, such an obligation follows from the mandatory interpretation of occupational health and safety regulations in conformity with European law.