Since 1st July, at least one third of the employees in a company must be affected by a loss of wages, and more than 10 per cent by a loss of working time.

In addition, if there is a new loss of work hours after July 2023, companies will first be required to build up negative working time balances before the short-time allowance can be paid. For this, an arrangement must exist in the company whereby minus hours can be accumulated in the framework of a work time account. Once this has been exhausted, short-time allowance can be paid for further losses of working hours. There is one exception: If the loss of work hours occurred before July 2023, no negative working time balances need to be created for this. The instructions have been adapted in this respect.

Companies can receive short-time allowance if the loss of work is due to economic reasons, for example due to lack of orders, cancellation of orders or lack of material. Also, short-time allowances may be paid if an unavoidable event has caused work hours to be reduced or lost completely. This is the case if, for example, due to official measures, exceptional weather conditions or fires, your employees can only work fewer hours than before or can no longer work at all. However, if the loss of work is customary in the industry or usual in business or is seasonal, it is not possible to receive short-time work allowance.