New regulation of short-time working allowance

The new regulations for the short-time working allowance have not yet been adopted, so that it is not yet possible to be completely certain that the conditions for granting the allowance as communicated by the political decision-makers will actually be met. It can be assumed that the final legal basis will be in place by the beginning of April, as it will be enacted in a fast-track procedure. Please therefore note that the following information is correct subject to the corresponding implementation.

What will change?

The following measures are expected to be implemented:

• If orders fail to materialize due to difficult economic developments, a company can apply for short-time working if at least 10 percent of employees could be affected by the loss of work. This threshold is currently 30 percent of the workforce
• It should be possible to completely or partially waive the build-up of negative working time balances before payment of the short-time working allowance. The applicable law requires that in companies where agreements on fluctuations in working hours are used, these are also used to avoid short-time working and to be driven into the red.
• Temporary workers will also be able to receive short-time working benefits in future.
• The social security contributions that employers normally have to pay for their employees are to be reimbursed in full by the Federal Employment Agency in future.

How should you proceed?

The following measures must be carried out in the specified order:

• Notification of short-time work to the responsible Federal Employment Agency
• Coordination of short-time work with the responsible employment agency
• Application for short-time work at the responsible employment agency
• Settlement of short-time work by your own HR department

The Federal Employment Agency expressly points out that the notification of short-time work must be made before the application is submitted so that the requirements for short-time work compensation can be checked. General information from the Federal Employment Agency can be found here:

https://www.arbeitsagentur.de/datei/merkblatt-8a-kurzarbeitergeld_ba015385.pdf

Submission of the notification for short-time work

The Federal Employment Agency has simplified the notification of short-time work. The following documents must be submitted for this advertisement:

• Fully completed notification of short-time working allowance
• List of the employees concerned
• A justification as to why KUG is being applied for, which should not be too brief and should set out the reasons in detail.
• Statement of working time accounts

The Federal Employment Agency asks you to send the advertisements by e-mail. Once a complaint has been received, the responsible department will contact the complainant.

What measures should be taken after the report?

• Registration at https://jobboerse.arbeitsagentur.de/ for an employer account. Further processing of applications for short-time working allowance will be carried out electronically if necessary. The notification can also be submitted electronically.
• Preparation of the agreement on short-time working with the employees, including the necessary clarification of the loss of earnings.

If you have any questions or require assistance with applications for short-time working allowance, please do not hesitate to contact us.