Your employer also has obligations regarding the risk of infection in the company. In order that we all get through this time as well as possible, everyone must cooperate. Your employer has a duty of protection and care towards you. This means that he has to make sure that risks of illness and health hazards in the company are as low as possible. For this there is even a fixed law in the third paragraph of the industrial safety law.

The measures and recommendations depend entirely on the type of operation. For example, if you work in a company with a lot of customer contact, there may be a specific obligation to provide disinfectant, and your employer is also obliged to instruct you on the hygiene measures and protective measures to be observed. This means that you must be explained how to minimize the risk of infection. For example, you may be required to wash your hands regularly. Every employee is then required to follow these measures.

Everyone should protect themselves as much as possible from infection. That is why the government recommends that home offices be made available wherever possible. If employees cannot work from home, concrete measures are important. In these workplaces, the employer must define health and safety measures in a timely manner.

IG Metall has compiled the most important information on the procedure here: For the safety of employees, "the works council must agree with the employer very quickly on measures to protect against infection with the corona virus. The means of choice: assess the risk and implement measures in accordance with the German Occupational Safety and Health Act (ArbSchG)!".

The measures must be implemented very quickly due to the immediate danger situation. The costs for all measures of industrial safety are borne by the employer according to section 3 paragraph 3 of the Industrial Safety and Health Act.

These are the essential measures to protect everyone:

• Containment of the spread through social or physical distance between individual people (at least 1.5 m)
• Compliance with the prohibition of contact decided on by the federal and state governments and, if necessary, a state-specific decree on exit restrictions
• Compliance with hygiene measures such as regular washing of hands and coughing into the elbow bend
• Correct behavior in suspicious cases by calling the doctor and health authorities
• Carrying out a test in case of clear symptoms as well as in case of contact with sick people
• Quarantine in case of positive test for corona virus (SARS-CoV-2)