Update from 24.03.2021, 12.30 pm: According to an official statement by Chancellor Angela Merkel today (24.03.2021), the original plan to declare Maundy Thursday (01.04.) and Easter Saturday (03.04.) as “rest days” has been stopped. The following assessment still refers to the resolutions of the MPK of 23.03.2021.
Maundy Thursday, April 1, 2021 and Saturday, April 3, 2021 are to be so-called “rest days”. According to the current state of knowledge, these are to be treated as public Sundays and public holidays. This, according to Dr. Markus Söder in his press conference today on 23.03.2021, with all legal consequences, such as surcharges, etc.. The necessary legal regulations are to be enacted today. It therefore remains exciting to see how the law will be implemented in practice. This should then be considered in detail and, if necessary, evaluated with the help of legal advice.
In addition to the question of continued payment of remuneration, the question arises as to the extent to which work can be performed on such a rest day – possibly in the home office – and whether employees are entitled to a substitute rest day if they are allowed to work on rest days. The Working Hours Act generally provides for substitute rest days for every Sunday and public holiday worked, which must be granted within eight weeks in the case of public holiday work. However, this does not necessarily result in an additional day of vacation or compensatory time off. Instead, a working day (another non-working day, e.g. an already non-working Saturday) must be granted instead of the worked Sunday or public holiday during the compensation period. With digital solutions from ZMI , the attendance and absence of your employees can also be precisely mapped in your industry.
Depending on what the legal regulations on rest days will ultimately look like, any regulations in collective agreements or works agreements as well as the co-determination rights of the works council must also be observed. If you have any questions or require support regarding the legal implications and implementation, please contact the Employment law experts from Warth & Klein Grant Thornton. Contact person is Attorney Kathrin Reitner.
Status: 23.03.2021, 2.15 pm