MWith a large “de-bureaucratization package,” Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) wants to “noticeably relieve the burden of bureaucracy” on companies suffering from the recession and high energy prices. But his current draft of a bureaucracy relief law is not only causing people to shake their heads among business representatives – but even within his own party.
However, the displeasure is directed less against Buschmann than against Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD). Because he delivered an almost provocative pseudo-solution to the relief package agreed upon by the Federal Cabinet last summer.
At the center of the controversy is the traffic light coalition's plan to modernize the written form requirement that has previously been stipulated in many laws. Because “written form” means that, according to old custom, paper must be signed by hand. While the switch to digital documents and evidence should now be permitted in other areas, Heil contributed a slightly different proposal. From the critics' point of view, this waste of paper, which has long been senseless, would even be reinstated again.
What exactly constitutes the employment contract
This concerns employment contracts and the question of how contractual working conditions should be documented. The regulations are contained in the Evidence Act, for which the Minister of Labor is responsible. “Unfortunately, Labor Minister Heil has so far stuck firmly to the paper form,” said Carl-Julius Cronenberg, medium-sized business policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group. This would drive company HR departments into “bureaucratic madness”. Likewise, international specialists “cannot believe that we are still stubbornly sticking to analogue procedures,” criticizes Cronenberg.
The employers’ association Gesamtmetall has also mocked the “holding on to mountains of paper and ink”. And he calculates which dimension should be taken into account: “Assuming a realistic assumption of 20 sheets of evidence per employment contract and 42 million dependent employees, there are currently 840 million sheets of paper wasted.” The start-up association is similarly surprised 1200 members represent: The proposal “does not do justice to the digital world of work in the 21st century. Progress is going down the drain.”
The details of the matter are somewhat difficult, as a distinction must be made between the employment contract and proof of “essential working conditions”. While in this country employment contracts between employer and employee can also be concluded verbally, the Evidence Act stipulates a catalog of 15 pieces of information that the employer must always provide to the employee on signed paper. If there is an employment contract on paper, less information needs to be provided separately. However, some, such as the division into shift systems, which can change from time to time, cannot be done this way.
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