Germany: another setback for the draft law on occupational health and safety

The new workplace law (Arbeitsstätteverordnung) will not come into force as scheduled on March 01, 2013. The German press reported severe criticism by business leaders that pressured the Chancellor to halt its passage at the last minute and require the Minister of Employment, Andrea Nahles (SPD) design a completely new law. Employer criticism mainly centers on the way the law caters for teleworking and on provisions for levels of natural light in workplaces.
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Disappointment for the Minister for Employment. Adopted by government in October 2014, then slightly reworked following demands by the Länders, the new occupational health and safety law was meant to be Andrea Nahles’s third major reform after the pension reforms and the introduction of Germany’s first national minimum wage. However the law has been frozen at the last minute and deferred to an unspecified date. “The ball is now in the Chancellor’s court”, declared a dejected Social-Democrat Min

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