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My manager is forcing me to take my yearly vacation days due to the corona virus outbreak. Is there any way to prevent it?
I've been with company for the 4 years and carried over a vacation day balance from 2019 and 2020. I am software engineer and working in home office. All of my colleagues are working remotely as well.
Yes, you can be forced to take your vaction.
The relevant laws can be found in the Bundesurlaubsgesetz. It declares that wishes of the employee have to be respected in regards of the vacation dates, if no pressing operative needs are opposing it. The common interpretation of this paragraph is that vaction cannot only be rejected but also enforced by the employer.
During the financial crisis in 2008 this was already applied and I'm not aware of any contradicting court rulings. In the current crisis VW and Daimler ordered vacation for many of their employees. Many people are in the same situation as you and you don't have to be worried particularly.
Your company - as most companies these days - is facing a hard time, but they are trying to keep the impact low. If the current crisis persists they might have to take further actions, like Kurzarbeit or lay offs. There is not much you can do at the moment, because finding a new job will be difficult, so make sure you are seen as a valuable employee in case they have to decide whom to keep and whom to let go.
my manager is forcing me to take a yearly vacation due to coronavirus outbreak ?
That's not unusual at the moment. Many businesses are struggling and have closed offices/stores. Taking vacation is one tool to deal with this.
is it a sign of getting rid of me or fire me?
Impossible to know. You need to ask. Are you the only one or are other people in your company on leave too? Is your business okay or are they struggling with revenue and customers? They might be doing you a favor: you are still getting paid.
I am really worried
Everyone is worried at the moment. It's impossible to know for sure how this will play out. Your boss doesn't know either, so they just doing the best they can with the data that they have.
If you still have all your 2019 holidays not taken, then it is really urgent that you take them, or most likely you will lose them by the end of March. Your employer shouldn't even have let it get that far.
Your employer absolutely should tell you to take these holidays as soon as possible. I'm not entirely sure if you need to take all the holidays till the end of March, or if your have to book a holiday that starts in March (say on the 31st), but telling you to take that holiday is absolutely normal.
If you have days from 2019 then you actually have to use them by April, otherwise they might be lost. Allowing you to take them into 2020 is actually already a favor.
While nobody is telepathic enough to know what your boss thinks, sending you home doing no work but paying you anyway seems a very weird way to get rid of you. The whole point of firing you would be to not pay you anymore, right?
Right now life is a little crazy. While there are probably laws about this, to be honest, staying home with full pay is the best case scenario for you right now. Yes, maybe you could use the vacation days later, but you can always negotiate that later, when everybody is glad this blew over and in a way better mood.
For now, I'd say be happy that you can stay home safe and still get paid.
Are you specifically (or a small fraction of the workforce) being singled out to take a vacation, or is a broad swath of the company being sent home?
The former is potentially concerning; although even there the devil is in the details: ex forcing the cleaning staff to take vacation when the rest of the office are working from home shouldn't be a red flag for the former.
If a large chunk of your coworkers are also being sent home on mandatory vacation then you're not being singled out for anything. If work from home is possible for your job though, it does suggest that your employer is at a general risk of collapse in the event of an extended public lockdown.
I'm not so sure about the legality of this move. If it's about left over vacation from 2019, yes that might be legal because this vacation usually has to be taken in the first three months of 2020 anyways, but otherwise there is no general right to force employees to use their PTO for this, surely not for unlimited time and if you could continue to work from home. You might want to look here:
https://www.wr.de/wirtschaft/coronavirus-was-muss-man-tun-wenn-man-arbeitslos-wird-id228733541.html
https://www.dgb.de/themen/++co++a62c8704-69ce-11ea-b2bd-52540088cada
If your boss insists, contact a union or a lawyer and get their opinion on the matter. If your company has a Betriebsrat, you might want to have a talk with them, too (stuff like this could, to some degree, be detailed in a Betriebsvereinbarung).
After Olaf Scholz (minister of finances) was in TV yesterday, things are still as unclear to me as they were to you yesterday. People were able to ask him questions. One question, asked by a young mother, was how she will cope after using up her overtime.
Here's what he said: Germany just released a huge money package. The government talked to the employers association (Arbeitgeberverbände), so employers can "interpret law openly": if you can't go to work without guilt, employers should pay wage continuation (Lohnfortzahlung) as a gesture of goodwill (Kulanz), which varies by contract. I interpret this as it's up to your employer, though it might not even apply to you anyways, as you can work from home.
Olaf Scholz says employers associations are in consens with labour unions (Gewerkschaften). Depending on your employer you might therefore be able to ask your labour union for help.
Olaf Scholz continues, that a new ruling is on its way, that will enable employers to claim wage coverage (Lohnabsicherung) from the state until easter. This new law has still to be passed by parliament (Bundestag). You would have to handle this through your employer, though.
He mentions taking overtime and vacation days are an option, too.
So, to sum it up: it's completely up to your employer. If your employer engages with labour unions, you're better off.
Another question to Olaf Scholz was how people shall cope with less money during Kurzarbeit. He answered, he hopes, enterprises are ramping up to full payment if they have reserve assets.
You can read a summary here: (though there's just the summary, Olaf Scholz answered particularly any question with "we released a huge package") https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/tv/deutschland-fragt-zu-corona-prosieben-show-fuer-eine-verunsicherte-bevoelkerung-a-f7fd4c0e-7b2d-4a34-beda-517e8559ad90
Or watch the whole TV session here: https://www.prosieben.de/tv/prosieben-live-deutschland-fragt-zu-corona/video/20201-experten-beantworten-eure-fragen-zu-corona-sendung-vom-25-maerz-ganze-folge (31:30 - 34:00) (I suggest you watch the whole video, there are also other experts, the whole show was pretty great)
Beforehand (16.03.2020) he said himself he begs employees to take vacation or overtime: Spd.de/aktuelles/corona/corona-aktuelles/
