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When it comes to working from home, the pressure on employers is growing: more and more politicians are asking for additional opportunities to work from home. But not all experts consider the home office to be a good solution.
In the fight against the corona virus, Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) wants to urge employers in his state to offer more home office options for employees. Presumably he wants to talk about it on Wednesday at a “head office summit” with businesses and unions, he said. First, consider how the potential that exists could be better exploited; Until now, this has not been the case enough. If that doesn’t work, you may need to think about other measures.
The home office is not equally possible in all industries, “but overall readiness needs to be increased and significantly improved.” At the beginning of the pandemic it was better than in the current phase.
The leader of the Bavarian Greens parliamentary group, Ludwig Hartmann, had already called for a “home office summit” and a “pact for home work” on Friday.
Heil also creates pressure
Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil had previously urged companies to allow employees to work from home during the Corona crisis. “To arbitrarily reject the Interior Ministry would be irresponsible now,” the SPD politician told NDR Info. On Tuesday, he will reiterate his call for companies to enable work from home in a conference with HR managers from large companies. Where a home office is not possible, hygiene requirements must be strictly adhered to, Heil said.
Otherwise, he could not rule out a stagnation in production either, the minister said. However, he wanted to avoid a lockdown in the entire economy.
Heil regretted that the introduction of a legal right to work from home failed due to resistance from the Union. “Otherwise, we would be further away now.” His bill now only states that employees have the right to speak to their employers about working from home. If the employer refuses, you need reasons.
Greens and unions want to force employers
The leader of the green parliamentary group Katrin Göring-Eckardt called in view of the persistently high number of infections and the emergence of a mutation of the virus to focus more on the economy. The federal and state governments have cracked down on retail, culture, and schools. For large areas of the economy, however, there are hardly any mandatory rules. When employers are unreasonable and demand your presence at work for no reason, pressure should be applied with fines.
Unions want to enforce the legal right to work from home during the corona pandemic. The head of the DGB, Reiner Hoffmann, told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” that it could not be that the decision on this rested solely with the employers. At the same time, however, it must also be ensured “that no one can be forced into the central office”. In the corona pandemic, some companies, whose employees were increasingly working from home, reduced their office space. “After all, some employers have now understood that they, too, benefit from working from home.” Employees are more satisfied, more productive, and get sick less often.
The federal government must create binding regulations, ver.di chief Frank Werneke told “stern” magazine. Companies are obliged to ensure that protection against infection is as effective as possible. In the current phase of the pandemic, this includes working from home “whenever possible”.
10.5 million people in the home office
According to a survey conducted by the Bitkom digital association in early December, one in four employees currently works exclusively from home. That would be around 10.5 million Germans. This partially applies to another 20 percent. Before the pandemic, only three percent had worked from home, another 15 percent partially.
However, there are no uniform rules for companies, just one call. “Employers are urgently being asked to create generous home office opportunities to implement the ‘We Stay at Home’ principle across the country,” was a call from the federal and state governments after the closure was extended. until the end of January.
Correct approach?
However, there are also critics of the home office obligation. According to Marcel Fratzscher, president of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), the federal government would do more harm with legal requirements than with help. “Almost 60 percent of employees in Germany cannot work from home, often because their job involves serving other people. Companies are already struggling to survive this pandemic,” he told the dpa news agency.
Oliver Stettes from the Institute for German Economics also holds a legal claim for the wrong approach: “The home office can only be productive if it is considered sensible by both parties, employee and employer.”
