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Thousands and thousands of people sit on weekdays where they had already sat in spring: at the kitchen table, on the sofa, in a makeshift office corner in the hallway or in the bedroom. The Ministry of the Interior is a milestone in the fight against the pandemic and is expressly recommended by the Federal Council.
SP Health Minister Alain Berset (48) wanted to go beyond the end of October and make the home office mandatory where possible. Berset was opposed by his colleagues in the bourgeois government.
Berset to new measures: “Last chance to prevent blocking”(03:10)
But now Berset is making a new attempt ahead of the holiday season. Employers should ensure that their employees “fulfill their work obligations as far away from home as possible,” states the latest draft of the Corona regulation, available to BLICK. To do this, they should take “the appropriate organizational and technical measures”.
Berset is bringing exactly the same wording as October to the table. In the explanations at the time he clarified: “The home office is no longer just a recommendation of the BAG, but now there is an obligation to work from home, as far as operationally possible”.
Cassis argued against the obligation to work from home
It was precisely this mandatory requirement that Berset’s middle-class colleagues had raised on the barricades. The foreign department of the Federal Councilor of the FDP Ignazio Cassis (59) opposed the front line. An internal office obligation “goes too far”, wrote the Cassis general secretariat in the official consultation. Cassis feared that the interior ministry’s obligation could lead to “possible claims for compensation – both against the employer and against the federal government.”
The obligation to work from home should not be associated with complaints, even financial ones at best. “It would be fatal to impose additional costs on companies in the current situation,” the Cassis department said.
The finance department of Federal Councilor Ueli Maurer (70) of the UDC wanted to leave him on a recommendation – which had “proven itself in the spring”.
Limited until January 20, 2021
Now Berset is once again questioning home office requirements. Because the current development in crown case numbers is far from satisfactory. Ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays, the numbers are expected to decline more, Virginie Masserey of the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) told media on Tuesday.
If you want to celebrate Christmas sensibly, contacts should be further reduced, Bundesbern says of Berset’s proposal. The home office is a particularly effective measure in this regard. According to the draft ordinance, the obligation to work from home would initially be limited to January 20, 2021.
The PS Federal Council tends to have the cantons on its side. As early as October, most of them supported the idea, as the Conference of Health Directors stated in its statement at the time. However, the resistance is likely to come from the bourgeoisie and employers.
Legal consequences
If Berset prevailed this time, it would have significant legal consequences. The position of employees would have been strengthened in some disputes, for example in the gossip between employees and coop directors. But the reverse is also true: Employees may also be less reluctant to work from home if they preferred to work in a company.
“If an employee refuses to work in a home office, he loses his right to his salary,” Thomas Geiser (68), an employment lawyer and professor emeritus HSG, recently said in Sunday View. “Conversely, an employee who can work from home could not be forced to continue working in the office.” It is clear that employers who have to work from home should reimburse their employees for labor costs, such as printer cartridges or desk.
Geiser: “If the parties disagree, employees would have a better legal starting position to actually get reimbursed for these expenses.”
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