July 19, 2021

Information for employees, professors in addition to the regulations established by the President's Office - Corona pandemic operation stage 3.3

Working on site and from home

Employment on the premises of the University shall once again be the norm as of 7/1/2021. Therefore, employees shall again work primarily on-site.

In order to ensure occupational health and safety regulations, temporary work from home can still be specified by the institute or facility management in accordance with the regulations of the Presidential Board, see § 2 DV Special Regulation. The regulations of the DV Telework are to be observed in all other respects.

The working hours (on-site and from home) are to be recorded by the employees.

For the purpose of teleworking, documents/files may be taken home for processing. Reference is made to the data protection regulations in accordance with Section 8 of the Telework Service Agreement, which must be observed.

The taking home of files and original documents must be documented in the respective institution (who takes what and when + return).

For the purpose of reducing the occupancy rate for employees, the institute or facility management can continue to set fixed working and break times for on-site work within the framework time, see § 3 DV Special Regulations. In all other respects, the DV Regular Working Hours shall apply.

Employees with care obligations

Employees who have to look after their children (up to the age of 12) themselves at home due to quarantine orders or an officially ordered closure of a facility for the care of children shall be given the opportunity to work (partially) from home if no other care options are available. The prerequisite is that the transferred activity can be performed from home.

For the rest, we refer to the regulation of § 56 para.1a IfSG on the possibility of compensation (does not apply to civil servants). A guideline for handling can be found here

Employees who belonged or belong to the risk group

Employees who belonged to the risk group at the beginning of the pandemic and for whom special regulations apply to protect them in the performance of their duties must be requested by their superiors to submit an updated medical certificate stating whether and, if so, to what extent restrictions must continue to be observed. If necessary, a company medical examination can also be arranged.

Please contact your personnel officer if necessary.

Attendance at events

On-site meetings or job interviews may be held again, provided that suitable protective measures are taken to prevent infection, such as regular ventilation, maintaining a minimum distance of 1.5 m between persons, and regular cleaning of surfaces.

For all presence events, it must be documented who participated in the event and in what time frame.

For event rooms and rooms with regular visitor traffic, electronic recording of contact persons has been introduced; this data is transmitted directly to the Health Department in accordance with the requirements of the Corona Ordinance.

Access for external persons

It is recommended that, as far as possible, external persons continue to be denied access to internal areas of office buildings. This restriction does not apply to those required to attend a meeting, or to tradesmen and service providers carrying out work in the office. Also excluded are areas where visitor traffic is an integral part of the performance of duties. Particular attention must be paid to consistent compliance with infection control regulations. External personnel must wear medical masks inside the office buildings.

Testing and Immunization Services

The University's current testing and vaccination offers are posted on our website each time under "New Information" (right column).

Infections, Quarantine, etc.

All individuals who test positive for Corona virus or for whom quarantine has been ordered must notify their facility director immediately. 

Facility managers are asked to report these cases to the Human Resources Department: zuv.dez3(at)uni-ulm.de

Business Travel

When arranging or approving business trips, special attention must be paid to the employer's/principal's duty of care, taking into account the interests of the service. The evaluation should include an assessment of whether or to what extent infection protection measures are taken into account at the place of work and at the event.

Business trips to high incidence areas or virus variant areas are generally not permitted. Only business trips that cannot be postponed may be made to these areas. In this case, the business trip approval must be submitted in advance to the administration for information. The travel warnings of the German Foreign Office and statutory testing or segregation obligations must be observed. Information on this can be found on the following pages:

https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/service/fragenkatalog-node/faq-reisewarnung

https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/N/Neuartiges_Coronavirus/Risikogebiete_neu.html

A risk assessment is required for the use of company vehicles. In principle, there is an obligation to wear a medical mask when using company vehicles. Based on the risk assessment, the obligation to wear a mask may be waived under the following conditions:

• Persons using the company vehicle form a fixed cohort (e.g. members of a fixed team)
• and these persons are either vaccinated or recovered or - if they do not wish to report this status - tested negative. The last test (self-test, rapid test or PCR test) must be no more than 72 hours ago.
• Testing is mandatory at an incidence of 35.
• Employees in such cohorts - regardless of incidence - will be offered testing.

This regulation applies under the condition that no viral variants are spreading that cancel out the 3G status.

 

Vacation and other private travel to risk countries/areas

Employees are urged to refrain from non-essential travel to high-risk areas. When traveling privately to a country or area for which segregation is required by regulation upon the traveler's return, the university cannot and must not be entered for the purpose of resuming work.

Please obtain information about high-risk countries and areas in a timely manner. Please note that risk countries are subject to change on an ongoing basis.

As an employer, we do not interfere with employees' vacation or personal travel plans. However, as a precautionary measure, we would like to point out that employees may not be entitled to continued pay or salary if they expose themselves to the risk of Covid 19 illness or seclusion by taking a vacation and this risk occurs.

When arranging or approving business trips, special attention must be paid to the employer's/principal's duty of care, taking into account the interests of the service. The evaluation should include an assessment of whether or to what extent infection protection measures are taken into account at the place of work and at the event.

Clarify procedures with your supervisor(s) early in the process. For details, please refer to the special instructions here

Special regulations in the WissZeitVG and LHG for temporary employed scientific staff

The Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz has been amended due to corona:

According to the new § 7 para. 3 WissZeitVG, the total permissible fixed-term period according to "§ 2 para. 1 p. 1 and 2 is extended by six months if an employment relationship according to § 2 para. 1 exists between March 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020." It is not necessary that the employment relationship exists for the entire period from March to September. However, the contract must have been concluded for a limited period of time for the purpose of scientific qualification in accordance with the WissZeitVG. An entitlement to an extension or an automatic extension is not associated with this regulation.

According to the WissBdVV of 23.9.2020, the permissible fixed-term period according to § 2 para.1 WissZeitVG for the above-mentioned employment relationships was extended by a further six months. For new contractual relationships established after 1.10.2020 until 31.03.2021, the permissible fixed-term period is extended by six months.

For employees who are employed on a fixed-term basis pursuant to Section 2 (2) WissZeitVG and who are/were employed in the period since March 1, 2020 (so-called third-party funding), the extended fixed-term limit for scientific qualification described here does not apply.

The LHG has also been amended due to corona:

For junior professorships and temporary academic councils, a possibility to extend the civil servant relationship applies - § 45 LHGAbs.6a: temporary civil servant relationships according to §§ 51 paragraph 7 sentence 1, 51a paragraph 3 sentence 2 and paragraph 4 sentence 1 as well as 52 paragraph 4 sentence 1 and 3, which already existed between March 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020, can be extended by up to six months upon request.

Updates

Please check the information on this website regularly for new guidance.

Further information on the topic

For more important information, please visit:

https://www.uni-ulm.de/universitaet/informationen-zum-coronavirus/