Labor Minister Hubertus Heil wants to enforce a legal right to work from home.
There should also be a kind of digital time clock.
Berlin -
Labor Minister Hubertus Heil
(SPD) plans to
legally
guarantee
employees
at least 24 days of
home office
per year.
He announced this in "Bild am Sonntag".
He
has already completed the
“
Mobile Work Act
”.
According to this, the employer should
only be able to reject
mobile work
if there are understandable, organizational or operational reasons.
"Wherever possible, all employees should be legally entitled to at least 24 days per year for
mobile work
," said Heil.
The reason for the law are the findings from the
Corona *
pandemic
: "The virus has taught us that much more
mobile work is
possible than we thought.
Mobile working is not only for young people from agencies who sit in a café with a laptop and a latte macchiato.
Because mobile working is already part of the modern world of work for some, but is not yet made possible for many, a
law
is needed for it
. ”According to a study on
home office
in the
Corona *
pandemic
of
At the Federal Ministry of Labor
, 36 percent of employees worked from home in July and August.
In the same period of the previous year, the share was 24 percent.
87 percent of the
mobile workers
were "very satisfied" or "satisfied".
Home office: “Mobile work law” meets with criticism
Heil hopes that this will improve the compatibility of family and work: “If both parents have a job in which
mobile working is
feasible, one of the parents can take turns working from home for one day every week, according to my suggestion.
That makes family life much easier. ”The German Trade Union Federation (DGB) considers the“
Mobile Work Act
”to be insufficient.
“The planned legal entitlement of only up to 24 days is clearly not enough.
That means just one day of
mobile work
every two weeks, ”said DGB boss Reiner Hoffmann.
That hardly meets the needs of many employees.
"Such a minimum requirement is a concession to
employers
who are still blocking the issue."
Above all, I think it's good that it should be called “Mobile Work Law” instead of “Right to work from home”.
That is much better because we are increasingly working in many different places.
https://t.co/O7WNlVvQrj
- Markus Albers (@albersmark) October 4, 2020
Salvation, however, stressed that the 24 days were a lower limit to allow the employees, "with their boss via
mobile working
to negotiate." However, could not bake from home bread baker course. "
Mobile working
should be rejected on principle with the law but no longer possible.
"In the future, boss and employees will negotiate on an equal footing," said Heil.
Also
FDP *
-Arbeitsmarktexperte
Johannes Vogel is critical.
A modern legal framework is "long overdue".
But the Working Hours Act remains completely unaffected.
“But this law is completely out of date.
We urgently need more freedom as to where and when to work, ”said Vogel.
Economics Minister Peter Altmaier
(CDU) had already
positioned
himself in May against the
home office legal claim
.
"Above all, we need less bureaucracy, not always new state guarantees," he told the dpa.
Home office: The working hours should now be documented
The law also includes the obligation to
digitally record time
- to protect the employee.
“Working from home shouldn't mean that you don't even let go of work.
In the
home office
,
too, it
has to end at some point, ”explains Heil.
There are also
new regulations
in the area of statutory
accident insurance
: “Statutory accident insurance covers the way to work.
Even with
mobile work
, for example, the way to daycare or school and from there back to the home office should be insured, ”said Heil.
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital central network.
List of rubric lists: © dpa / Bernd von Jutrczenka