Because of employer fury over Employment Minister Andrea Nahles’ (SPD) new workplace decree (Arbeitsstätteverordnung), the German Chancellery halted its progress in March 2015, and it has been suspended ever since. On Friday 23 September the Bundesrat (legislative body representing Germany’s sixteen Länder) approved a new ‘compromise’ version from the Government, the German Employers’ body (BDA) and the Länder. Provisions particularly under fire from employers have been revised, and notably those treating teleworking and natural lighting. The Federal Government will now be expected to approve the new decree.
A better legal footing. Against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving world of work, the job of updating this decree was to bolster worker health and safety, by, for example, including psychosocial risks in occupational risk analysis reports, as well as by providing better legal support to businesses with clearer definitions (especially for teleworking) and fewer decrees.
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