I work for a company which is nearing insolvency. This Monday they announced to everyone that they intend to reduce everyone’s hours aggressively, and use Kurzarbeitergeld to preserve jobs until they can attract new funding, or attract a buyer.

So I just got the agreement I am supposed to sign today, and I am not so sure about this.

The first line says this:

> Die Parteien gehen davon aus, dass für den
Betrieb der Gesellschaft die geltenden
gesetzlichen Voraussetzungen für die Gewährung
von Kurzarbeitergeld vorliegen (§§ 95 ff. SGB
III). Die Gesellschaft wird daher bei der Agentur
für Arbeit den Arbeitsausfall anzeigen und
Kurzarbeitergeld beantragen.

> The Parties assume that the legal requirements for
the granting of public short-time allowance (§§ 95
ff. SGB III) are met for the Company ́s operation.
The Company will therefore notify the
employment agency of the loss of work and apply
for short-time allowance.

However I looked up the rules, and this is what it says about KA on [arbeitsagentur.de](https://www.arbeitsagentur.de/unternehmen/finanziell/kurzarbeitergeldformen/kurzarbeitergeld-anzeige-antrag-berechnung/informationen-fuer-unternehmen-zum-kurzarbeitergeld):

> – There must be an “unavoidable event” (for example, measures initiated by the authorities, extraordinary weather conditions, accident) OR
> – Economic causes (for example, lack of orders, cancellation, missing material)
> – The loss of work must be temporary and unavoidable.
> – The minimum requirement (limited until the 30th June 2023):
At least 10 percent of the employed employees must have a loss of pay of more than 10 percent
>
> What does “inavoidable loss of work” mean
>
> – The failure must not be based on industry-standard, operational or seasonal reasons.
> – First of all, overtime and working time accounts must be reduced – but: the construction of negative working time balances will be waived by the end of June 2023
> – The transfer of employees to another area/department must be examined (possibly temporary implementation)
> – Economically reasonable countermeasures must have been taken beforehand.
(for example, work in warehouse, cleanup or repair work)

So from what I can tell, it seems that KA only should apply if the loss of work is unavoidable, and in the case of a failing company, I am not sure if this would apply.

Does anyone have experience with this, or knows if I should be concerned about this contract?

1 comment

  1. Best example for Kurzarbeitergeld was the first year of the pandemic when people couldn’t work or production slowed down due to lack of materials.

    An other example is lack of work in the construction sector due to bad weather.

    It is meant to prevent dismissals if the underlying problem is only temporary.

    Kurzarbeitergeld means your hours will be cut and the state helps with money so your pay cut won’t be that bad.

    If your current contract doesn’t contain anything about Kurzarbeitergeld, the ammendment is necessary. It happened to me back in 2020.

    If the Kurzarbeitergeld isn’t granted, your employer might need to lay off people to reduce costs. It seems your employer is trying to avoid this.

    Important: If you receive Kurzarbeitergeld you are not allowed to work overtime, at all.

    You will also need to do a tax return for that year but that’s a topic for a different discussion.

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