Bavarian employees in the so-called critical infrastructure no longer have to accept longer working hours imposed due to the corona situation. The corresponding general decrees would be lifted in all administrative districts with effect from Thursday, the Bavarian Ministry of Labor announced on Wednesday.
The regulation was enacted in January. At the time, it was feared that mass reports of illness due to infections with the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus could paralyze important areas. Affected employers could order up to twelve hours of working time on workdays, the weekly working time should not exceed 60 hours. The regulation should actually only expire on March 19th.
The Verdi union welcomed the decision and counted it as a success in its own right. She had successfully taken legal action against the regulation in Upper Franconia. In mid-February, the Bayreuth administrative court granted urgent applications, after which the regulation for the applicants – the trade union and a private individual – was temporarily suspended. Verdi described this as a “model lawsuit” and called on the other government districts to withdraw their identical general decrees.
The Ministry of Labor, on the other hand, announced that the “gratifying development of the pandemic situation and the decline in the number of infections” had eliminated the need for flexible working hours. A revocation of the general decrees was expressly reserved. Verdi district manager Luise Klemens said: “We hope that we have not only averted such a project this time, but also that we will also persuade the state government to keep their hands off such special burdens on employees in the future.”