Federal Cabinet approves amendments to the Bureaucracy Relief Act IV

The Federal Cabinet has adopted a drafting aid to supplement the government's draft of the Bureaucracy Reduction Act IV. The skilled trades sector sees no progress in this and calls for more effective relief measures.

This article is part of the special feature on bureaucratic madness in the skilled trades.

The Federal Government has adopted a drafting aid, presented by Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP), to supplement the government's draft bill for the Fourth Bureaucracy Relief Act (BEG IV). It contains proposals for additional measures to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy within the framework of BEG IV.

Drafting Aid: The drafting aid for the amendment to the government's draft of the BEG IV (Federal Act on the Further Development of the Federal Government's Compensation Scheme) can be found here. With these amendments, the government aims to reduce compliance costs for businesses by approximately €2,6 million per year . Furthermore, the proposed introduction of written form in the Temporary Employment Act is expected to generate savings of around €30 million annually , which, for methodological reasons, cannot be reflected using the compliance cost instrument.

The following measures are planned: 

• Changes to the Employment Evidence Act and the limitation of the standard retirement age: In the future, employers will also be able to provide information about the key terms of their employment contracts and enter into retirement age agreements in text form, i.e., by email. Only if employees expressly request written proof of their working conditions do employers have to send the information on paper. This change allows companies to digitize their human resources processes. Only in sectors particularly at risk from undeclared work and illegal employment will the paper-based proof remain mandatory.
• Another new regulation will provide listed companies with relief in the preparation of their annual general meeting: If compensation-related resolutions are to be passed at the annual general meeting, companies are required, under current law, to publish the complete documentation relating to these resolutions in the Federal Gazette. In the future, it will be sufficient to make these documents available to shareholders via the company's website. In practice, this will lead to considerable simplification without resulting in a lack of information for shareholders.
• Registration of permanent establishments: Business owners who relocate their premises to the jurisdiction of another trade authority will no longer be required to deregister with their previous authority and register with the new authority. In the future, registration with the new authority will suffice.

"It's clear: reducing bureaucracy is an ongoing task . Our Meseberg bureaucracy reduction program, with a relief volume of three billion euros per year, should also serve as a blueprint for the necessary reduction of bureaucracy at the European level . Because Brussels, too, needs a change of course towards less bureaucracy and more freedom," explains Buschmann.

From the perspective of the skilled trades, the federal government is once again missing an opportunity with this decision to "significantly and decisively advance the much-needed reduction of bureaucracy." "It is very regrettable that the amended draft law contains no substantial relief for skilled trades businesses and that the opportunity to establish practical checks has been missed," says Holger Schwannecke.

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Crafts demand more effective measures

The Secretary General of the Central Association of German Crafts points out that while it is right to allow text form for employment contracts, it is " completely incomprehensible " why the written form requirement is still being maintained for companies in the construction and building cleaning industry and the meat industry.

Schwannecke is urging the Bundestag to swiftly supplement the BEG IV (Federal Act on the Restructuring of Tradespeople) with significantly more effective relief measures . "Because the burden of proof, documentation, and reporting obligations is increasingly proving to be a dangerous competitive disadvantage for tradespeople."

Establish an annual relief law

It is therefore " urgently necessary " to provide tangible relief to craft businesses on the one hand and to reduce new burdens on the other. "Reducing bureaucracy must be a permanent consideration and actively promoted. To this end, an annual law on reducing bureaucracy should be firmly established so that the government is continually challenged to take bureaucracy reduction seriously ."

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