Status: 11.08.2021 1:57 p.m.
Due to the consequences of previous lockdowns, companies in Germany often follow the corona meetings of the federal and state governments with concern. This time, the resolutions on tests and the 3G rule in particular are triggering new debates.
The resolutions of the federal-state meeting on the other corona measures have been assessed very differently by business associations and industries. Depending on the point of view, the relief of politicians rejecting further lockdowns, the praise for an extension of the bridging aid or the criticism of the planned test regulations prevailed.
Praise for rejection of further lockdown
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) had declared after the meeting: “There will be no lockdown at all.” Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn said vaccinated people could be sure that there were no new restrictions for them. “For these three out of four adults who have had themselves vaccinated, there will be no new lockdown,” said the CDU politician ARD-“Extra”.
The retail association HDE welcomed the “explicit rejection of a new lockdown”. The Central Association of German Crafts (ZDH) also praised the formulated goal of avoiding another lockdown. The Federal Association of Medium-Sized Enterprises expressed itself more cautiously. Its federal managing director Markus Jerger told the news agency dpathat through the test regulations a possible lockdown “was postponed until further notice, but not bindingly canceled”.
Daniel Pokraka, ARD Berlin, with background information on the resolutions of the federal-state meeting
daily news 5:00 p.m., 10.8.2021
Companies no longer want to offer tests for free
Business associations expressed clear criticism of the plans for the corona tests. On the one hand, employers should continue to be obliged to offer their staff tests every week. At the moment, employees who do not work from home must receive two free test offers per week. According to the federal-state resolution, the occupational health and safety ordinance is to be updated and extended in this regard. On the other hand, there will be no more state-funded free corona citizen tests from October 11th – exceptions only apply to people who cannot be vaccinated.
“If the state withdraws from financing the free corona tests, the employers ‘mandatory test offer must also end,” demanded the Federal Association of German Employers’ Associations (BDA). “The state must not unilaterally pass the cost of tests on to employers.” Crafts President Hans Peter Wollseifer also considers it “unacceptable and also incomprehensible” to maintain the obligation to offer tests for companies if the federal government ceases to offer free citizen tests at the same time. The companies cannot be expected to “continue to bear the full costs of this offer”.
Shared echo with 3G rule
In some industries, the so-called 3G rule can also be expected to have an impact. From 23 August at the latest, access to the interior rooms should therefore only be permitted for vaccinated, convalescent and tested people in many cases. This applies, for example, to indoor catering, events and indoor sports, to going to the cinema as well as to going to the hairdresser. The application of the 3G rule can be wholly or partially suspended in rural districts if the seven-day incidence there is stable below 35 or other underlying indicators in the respective federal state reflect a “comparably low incidence of infections”. The decision paper means a move away from the sole dependence of further steps on the seven-day incidence, without the federal and state governments having already committed themselves to an exact catalog of further criteria.
The 3G rule increases the barriers to entry for unvaccinated people, because negative tests will be required in the future for facilities that were previously more easily accessible. The Zentralverband des Deutschen Handwerks supported the implementation of the 3G rule and described the barriers to entry for those who have been vaccinated as less severe. However, ZDH President Wollseifer criticized the resolutions with regard to the alternative criteria in addition to the seven-day incidence as not being specific enough to be able to derive planning certainty from them.
The hotel and restaurant association DEHOGA is more critical of the expansion of the 3G rule and also cited legal concerns with a view to the proportionality of the measure. This applies all the more to a possible further restriction of the relaxation to vaccinated and convalescent people (2G rule). “It is unacceptable that this emotional debate is carried out on the back of our hospitality industry in particular. The 2G rule can and must only be the very last stage of escalation in a significantly worsened pandemic situation,” said DEHOGA President Guido Zöllick shortly before the Federal-State resolutions.
3G rule
As part of protection against infection in the corona pandemic, the 3G rule serves to define groups of people who are assumed to have a low epidemiological risk. The three “G” stand for:
– Gvaccinated persons
– Genesene people
– Gtested people (i.e. people with a current, negative SARS-CoV-2 test)
Proof of belonging to one of these three groups of people may include access authorizations to facilities or entry permits to certain countries. The competent authorities in each case define whether and in which cases the 3G rule is applied and how long the evidence of membership of the respective group of people is valid – for example, how old a negative test result may be or how long ago the infection was survived allowed to benefit from the 3G rule after recovery.
Praise for extending the bridging aid
The announced extension of the bridging aid for companies until the end of the year met with broad approval from business. According to the will of the federal states, it is to be flanked by an extension of the easier access to short-time work allowance. Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil and Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz had already announced this. The HDE demanded that the decisions made must now be implemented quickly in practice.