Thuringia: government in energy-saving mode: hibernation in ministries

Many people come to rest between Christmas and New Year, and there is not much going on in the ministries of the Thuringian state government either.

Thuringia: government in energy-saving mode: hibernation in ministries

Many people come to rest between Christmas and New Year, and there is not much going on in the ministries of the Thuringian state government either. In order to save energy, some houses are even closing this year.

Erfurt (dpa/th) - A number of Thuringian ministries switch to energy-saving mode between Christmas and New Year. The ministries for education, justice, health, the environment and infrastructure are keeping a kind of Christmas rest, according to a departmental survey by the Thuringian State Chancellery at the request of the dpa. In the department of Health Minister Heike Werner (left), for example, employees work overtime between Christmas Eve and January 1st, take vacation or work from home if necessary. The Ministry of Infrastructure is to remain closed between December 27 and New Year's Eve "to save energy," it said.

The Ministry of Finance, on the other hand, remains open. "But the possibility of working from home can be used very generously, the usual representation regulations have been overridden," said the department of Finance Minister Heike Taubert (SPD). The ministry cannot be closed completely because the Thuringian tax offices are still working and the administrative and technical supervision must be guaranteed.

According to the State Chancellery, the ability to work in all departments in presence or in the home office is ensured. "The departments make their own decisions about deployments, which has proven to be the case in the past."

Georg Maier's Ministry of the Interior and Wolfgang Tiefensee's Ministry of Economic Affairs (both SPD) did not respond.

In the Thuringian state parliament, the temperature has already been lowered to 19 degrees according to the specifications of the Federal Ministry of Economics; corridors and unused rooms are no longer heated at all. According to a spokesman, the President of the State Parliament, Birgit Pommer, appealed to employees in an email to make generous use of the opportunity to work from home between Christmas and New Year or to reduce days off.