Can mini-jobbers insist on payment if their work was not needed during the lockdown phases in the corona pandemic? The Federal Labor Court now wants to clarify this in principle.
Erfurt (dpa) – The first labor law dispute that originated in the Corona crisis has reached Germany’s highest labor judges.
In a hearing in Erfurt, the Federal Labor Court deals with the payment of mini-jobbers in the specialist retail trade, which was repeatedly closed during the lockdown phases. The judges are also looking into the question of whether the consequences of a pandemic are part of the general operational risk of entrepreneurs, as the plaintiff from Lower Saxony says.
What is it specifically about? The lawsuit of a woman from Lower Saxony who was employed as a marginal employee in a branch for sewing machines and accessories as a saleswoman is being negotiated. Due to the corona infections in the region, the business had to remain closed for the entire month of April 2020 by order of the authorities – the woman was not needed as a saleswoman. She insists on the 432 euros net that she has agreed with her employer for the job as remuneration.
In her lawsuit, she argued that the closure of the business due to an official order due to the pandemic was part of the operational risk that the defendant employer had to bear. The mini jobber was successful in the first two instances in Lower Saxony, her employer is now defending herself against this before the Federal Labor Court.
With the case, a group of workers comes into focus that has not played such a major role in the pandemic: mini-jobbers, of which there are hundreds of thousands, mainly in service industries. According to figures from the German Trade Association (HDE), there were around 808,000 marginally employed people in retail alone at the beginning of the year. “The vast majority work in food retailers or in drugstores, which, unlike specialist retailers, were not affected by the Corona closings,” said a spokesman.
Mini-jobbers cannot be sent on short-time work like full-time and part-time employees. They are employees with a maximum monthly salary of EUR 450 or a work commitment of a maximum of 70 days per calendar year. You do not pay any social security contributions. How many mini-jobbers shared the plaintiff’s fate is open – neither the trade association nor the Verdi union have any data on this.