Eurofound's EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the COVID-19 crisis, the war in Ukraine, rising inflation, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts.
Factsheet for measure DE-2020-12/1144 – Updated – measures in Germany
Country | Germany , applies nationwide |
Time period | Temporary, 15 March 2020 – 07 April 2023 |
Context | COVID-19 |
Type | Other initiatives or policies |
Category |
Protection of workers, adaptation of workplace
– Occupational health and safety |
Author | Birgit Kraemer (Hans Boeckler Foundation) and Eurofound |
Measure added | 15 September 2020 (updated 08 November 2023) |
During the pandemic, certain industries were at risk of collapse because the borders were closed for foreign workers. It showed that agriculture and forestry, meat processing, private care of the elderly and construction depend on seasonal and posted workers from abroad. Moreover, also the wharf industry and other manufacturing industries depend on posted workers.
Following on public outcries that the supply of meat and vegetables might be affected, government permitted foreign workers to enter the country for work.
Faire Mobilität , a network of consultants for Eastern European workers run by the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB) and predominately funded by the Federal Employment Agency, set up a phone hotline for foreign workers in need of support.
Established in 2011, Faire Mobilität today holds nine advisory centers located all over Germany. Social and labour rights experts speaking different languages give comprehensible information and direct support in case of need. Data by the advisory centers indicate that workers contact them because of wage issues or wage theft, lack of information, violations of social rights or health and safety. The consultants provide individual support; big cases involving a number of workers are made public via email newsletters and media contacts.
The COVID-19 pandemic poses a particular challenge because mobile workers from abroad are often contained in groups at their employers' premises or they work together with little space for social distancing.
Faire Mobilität runs a standard phone hotline; in face of COVID-19, the hotline was extended to provide information on the workers' rights and obligations with regard to the pandemia but also to give support in case of individual anxieties.
The following updates to this measure have been made after it came into effect.
07 April 2023 |
On 7 April 2023, the official Corona protection measures in Germany expired. |
07 April 2023 |
The Fair Mobility Info Hotline for employees from Central and Eastern European countries of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) continues to exist. |
Data on the use of the COVID-19 hotline is not yet available.
Workers | Businesses | Citizens |
---|---|---|
Seasonal workers
Posted workers Migrants or refugees in employment |
Does not apply to businesses | Does not apply to citizens |
Actors | Funding |
---|---|
Trade unions
|
National funds
Trade union |
Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:
Trade unions | Employers' organisations | |
---|---|---|
Role | Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative | No involvement |
Form | Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal | Not applicable |
Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:
Faire Mobilität is a structure set up by the DGB and has the DGB on its steering board. Employers organisations are not involved.
In case any violations of labour rights become known, the sectoral affiliates of DGB will get involved as well. . In case COVID 19 infections become known because of the hotline, Faire Mobilität and the sectoral trade union at local level will contact the labour inspectorate for investigating the occupational safety and health standards and the conditions of housing.
The trade unions are supportive, the employer organisations are not involved.
Citation
Eurofound (2020), COVID-19 info-hotline for East European workers, measure DE-2020-12/1144 (measures in Germany), EU PolicyWatch, Dublin, https://static.eurofound.europa.eu/covid19db/cases/DE-2020-12_1144.html
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