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Home office (symbol photo)
Photo: Jens Kalaene / picture alliance / dpa
Once home office doesn't always mean home office.
If an employer considers it necessary for an employee to return to the regular workplace for operational reasons, he can order this and reverse his previous instruction to work at home.
So decided the State Labor Court (LAG) Munich.
The judgment has just been published and is final
(file number: 3 SaGa 13/21)
.
In the specific case, a graphic designer was allowed to do the work in the home office in the wake of the corona pandemic, as was the majority of his colleagues.
Only the secretariat was manned in limited contact in the company's Munich office.
But on February 24, 2021, the employer ordered the graphic designer to return to his regular office workstation.
The employee complained: He was of the opinion that in view of the corona pandemic, his home office work should only be interrupted as an exception.
No right to work from home in February
However, the labor court already confirmed the employer's right to issue instructions.
Neither the employment contract nor the Sars-CoV-2 occupational health and safety ordinance and the trade regulations give rise to a legal right to work in the home office.
The general risk of getting infected with Covid-19 on the way to work does not preclude the obligation to appear in the office.
The LAG has now also followed suit in its judgment of August 26, 2021. An employer may redefine the place of work by issuing instructions while maintaining "reasonable discretion".
Here the home office was neither stipulated in the employment contract nor tacitly.
In February 2021, even according to the Sars-CoV-2 Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance, the employee was not entitled to work in the home office.
The employer had given sufficient reasons for the return to the regular job.
The technical equipment at the home workplace did not match that at the office location.
In addition, the employee did not prove that the company data in the home office was protected against access by third parties and the wife working for the competition.
In fact, there is definitely the possibility that employees will be able to work at home permanently after the home office obligation in the spring, if they or their employers have not made any other arrangements.
However, this will only affect cases from April 2021, because the Infection Protection Act was changed at that time.
The case discussed here took place earlier.
mamk / JurAgentur