On 16 September Germany’s Federal Council of Ministers (Bundeskabinett) passed the ‘Law on job security in light of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic" (Gesetz zur Beschäftigungssicherung), which will extend the length of time companies and employees can benefit from the short-time work scheme, ‘adapted to the Covid-19 period’. Two related decrees were also adopted. They regulate, inter alia, the questions of social security contributions and training for people on short-time working.
Short-time working numbers are declining, but remain high. ‘A bridge across the valley of the economic crisis without losing one’s job’ is the image that Employment and Social Affairs Minister Hubertus Heil is fond of using when referring to short-time working measures that have so far enabled Germany to keep the number of unemployed people below three million despite the crisis.
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