Even after Corona: Heil is planning important change - it affects many employees 

Created: 01/13/2022, 05:17 AM

Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) is planning an important change in the home office.

© Britta Pedersen / dpa

With the corona pandemic, the world of work has also fundamentally changed.

This is especially true for work in the home office.

Labor Minister Heil now wants to improve on the existing regulation.  

Berlin - Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) wants to establish the home office permanently in everyday German work.

"I am in favor of the fact that we draw fundamental consequences for the world of work from the corona-related, unplanned large-scale attempt to work from home," Heil told the German Press Agency on Wednesday.

According to the minister, the Ampel-Coalition will create "modern rules for mobile working in Germany" and a legal right to work from home: "A modern regulatory framework for mobile working is coming."

The home office rule should apply permanently

Heil's plans stipulate that employers must enable their employees to work from home in the future - unless operational reasons speak against it.

"If they want to refuse, there must be operational reasons against it - for example because you work on the blast furnace in the steelworks and of course you can't work from home," Heil explained.

“But if the employer cannot give any operational reasons, then the legal right to be able to use home office applies.

This finally gives many people the opportunity to work from home even after the pandemic.

This is how we create a better balance between family and work. "

Permanent home office obligation: Heil promises "new freedom"

For many people, mobile working means “a new freedom”, stressed Heil.

But his perception is also that many do not want to work from home permanently, but only occasionally.

For this, too, he wanted to "create more flexibility," said Heil.

With the start of the Corona * pandemic in spring 2020, the practice of mobile working in Germany has fundamentally changed. Employers who previously did not do this voluntarily have been obliged since November to offer their employees work from home - if there are no operational reasons against it. Just a few days ago, in view of the rapid spread of the Omikron variant, the federal and state governments once again asked employees and employers to work more from home.

Heil now wants to establish the existing right to work from home on a permanent basis.

At the same time, however, the Minister of Labor also pointed out "the downsides in the home office", which he absolutely wanted to narrow down.

“Work shouldn't make you sick.

Even in the home office it has to be the end of the day. ”This also takes into account the regulatory framework on which his party SPD has agreed with the Greens and FDP.

Ifo Institute: More people working from home again

According to the latest information from the Munich Ifo Institute *, according to a company survey in December of last year, 27.9 percent of employees worked at least temporarily in the home office.

In August the rate was 23.8 percent.