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A woman in the home office: Often the necessary technical equipment is missing
Photo:
Sebastian Gollnow / DPA
In the dispute over expanding the home office to contain the corona, the federal government wants to continue to rely solely on voluntariness.
A spokeswoman recalled the appeal from the federal and state governments that companies should use home office wherever possible.
However, this is not possible in all areas of work.
The Greens in the Bundestag, on the other hand, want to increase the pressure on employers: "Wherever possible, employers must be obliged to allow home offices," said parliamentary group leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt.
"Anyone who can and wants to work from home must be able to do so immediately."
While many companies acted in an exemplary manner, too many employees reported that they were being denied the opportunity to work at home if there was no need, said Göring-Eckardt.
“Appeals alone do not impress employers who have hitherto been inconsiderate.
If you can't do that, you have to get the best possible protection at your job. "
To this end, the Greens want to use a regulation in the Occupational Safety and Health Act that enables the Federal Ministry of Labor to issue statutory ordinances of national importance in epidemic situations.
This should be seen separately from plans by Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) to permanently facilitate access to the home office, explained Parliamentary Managing Director Britta Haßelmann.
The Bundestag should discuss the application on Thursday evening.
Heil had recently appealed to companies again wherever it was sensible and possible to allow mobile working.
It must be prevented "with all might" that the workplace becomes a place of infection.
Söder wants to improve options for depreciation
Employers who violate the proposed regulation should, according to the Greens' plans, now also face a fine.
There should be a hotline for employees to report violations to.
In addition, the compensation and support services for parents of children in need of care must be regulated more clearly and granted even if daycare centers or schools are not closed, but parents do not send their children there in order to avoid contact.
In the debate, the pressure on the economy had recently increased massively.
(Read here: How much more home office can the German economy take?)
DGB boss Reiner Hoffmann accused individual employers of old-fashioned behavior.
»The fact is that many companies and administrations do not offer a home office even where it would be possible.
Apparently this is due to an antiquated management and control behavior, "said the union boss of the" Rheinische Post ".
Another problem is the lack of technical equipment, which must change quickly and in the long term.
Hoffmann demand a legally enforceable legal right to the home office.
"Employers should have to explain themselves if they block themselves against more flexibility in the interests of the employees." He also called for a right of co-determination for works councils for the introduction and implementation of mobile work.
The labor market policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Johannes Vogel, accused the federal government: "To date, the Union and SPD have not even managed to establish a modern legal framework for mobile work and home office." Companies and employees would be pushed into legal gray areas.
Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder consulted with employer and trade union representatives in Bavaria at a summit on ways to get more home offices.
The CSU politician, however, is against state requirements in the implementation of home office options: "We also agreed that we do not need a legal basis."
More opportunities for working at home should be created “wherever possible”.
The proportion of home office jobs can be increased through an incentive system.
Söder brought up the possibility of immediate write-offs of the necessary investments.
Employer representatives are skeptical about the obligation to work from home
Gesamtmetall President Stefan Wolf said that the economy is already doing a lot.
"Since spring 2020, people have largely been working from home wherever possible," he told the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung".
“This also applies to the metal and electrical industries.
Many entrepreneurs are also exemplary. ”He pointed out that old people's and nursing homes were in first place with around 44 percent of the number of infections.
In industry it is two to four percent and thus significantly less than in private households with 25 percent.
Wolf also said that there are many activities that cannot be done in the home office.
Many services are also linked to the workplace.
A right to work from home, which applies equally to all employees, is therefore not possible.
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apr / dpa / AFP