If employees work in the company every day, managers can easily see who is coming and going when.
Can the boss also query the working hours when everyone is in the home office?
"Good morning! -" Short break "-" I'm in the
evening
": This is how it looks at the moment in many company chats when employees log on or off from home. Does everyone have to participate?
"In principle, the employer has the right to find out from when to when an
employee is
working," says Johannes Schipp, specialist lawyer for labor law in Gütersloh.
And in the home office, too, the working hours are not unlimited: As a rule, employees cannot just work when it suits them best.
"The employees are also bound to normal business hours at home," says Schipp.
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What employers can ask of employees in the home office
If the employer wants to know when the employees start to work and when they go back to the end of the day, he could, for example, absolutely require that they communicate this via email or in an internal chat.
If there is a works council in the company, however, employers must obtain its approval for such technical requirements.
If in doubt, the exact rules must be laid down in a works agreement.
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Home office - health and safety regulations also play a role
"A third point also plays a role," adds Schipp.
The European Court of Justice decided in 2019 that working hours actually have to be controlled by technical specifications.
"There are occupational health and safety regulations and they have to be verifiable, as it can also be about protection against self-exploitation," said the lawyer.
In Germany it has not yet been finally decided whether this EU decision should be implemented in the form of a separate law.
According to Schipp, however, there are signs that there should be a draft law on time recording.
"And that includes the home office," says Schipp.
(dpa) * Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen central editorial network
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