Hubertus Heil

In the ongoing discussion inside of the grand coalition about employees' right to home office, German minister of labour and social affairs, Hubertus Heil from the Social Democratic Party said that he no longer demands an enforceable right to 24 days of home office for every employee working in a position in which working from home is possible. Heil says, he tries to meet the coalition partner, the conservative Union halfway with this waiver and hopes for their support for his draft "Mobile Labour Law". The CDU/CSU rejects any legal reglementation of home office.

The German federal minister of labor and social affairs Hubertus Heil has demanded that the meat processing company Tönnies should be held liable and forced to compensation payments due to the Covid-19 outbreak in its meat processing plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrück. Over 1,300 people have tested positive and all of the 6,500 workers are under mandatory quarantine. Due to problems with the documentation inside the company and the number of cases, schools and daycare centers in the region have been closed. Heil stated that "There must be a civil liability of the company" and accused the company of taking "an entire region hostage".