“Spending money not on standstill, but on progress” | news

“The federal government could have used the corona crisis much better to catch up in terms of digitization,” explains Michael Buller, board member of the Verband Internet Reisevertrieb eV (VIR) and advocates a quick relaxation of the regulation for short-time work benefits. He worries that many tourism companies have had to work with short-time working for almost a year, which in turn paralyzes them. Important employees and specialists, on the other hand, would now orientate themselves in other industries. “These employees are not only very frustrated, but their skills are no longer required at all,” warns the association chairman. “We finally have to use the crisis to make progress, and not stand still.”

“Employees should be able to be used for projects despite short-time working”

In his opinion, a relaxation of the short-time work regulation is important for all industries. “For many companies, after almost a year of crisis, the financial substance is at stake – even for originally healthy companies. They have no choice but to keep employees on short-time work in order to secure liquidity in the company, ”emphasizes Buller. “In addition, many important specialists are looking for a new professional perspective, since they have been on short-time work for almost a year and there are no positive signals from the government for a resumption of tourism.”

The VIR board therefore advocates introducing a progress model as part of the regulation on short-time working and thereby promoting the further development of companies. His suggestion: “Despite short-time work, employees should be able to be used for digitization projects, for example, with a ‘goodwill account’ of a certain percentage of their registered short-time work and precise working time recording for these projects.”

“Politics must create solutions that enable new perspectives”

He appeals to use the current crisis situation to create future-oriented framework conditions for the many employees and companies, since it makes more sense to spend money on progress than on standstill. “In Germany we are lagging behind in many areas worldwide, especially in digitization,” affirmed the association chairman. “Here politicians must create solutions that enable companies and their employees in Germany to have new perspectives so that they can survive in international competition.”

(VIR / NZ)

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