26.10.: Home office during Corona crisis

Home office and mobile working are not new phenomena. However, due to the current corona crisis, there was a growing demand to work at home during the year. Federal Labour Minister “Heil” even wants to initiate a right to 24 days home office per year. Whether there is actually a right to a home office for the employee [For reasons of readability, the male form was chosen in the text, but the information nevertheless refers to members of both sexes] was recently decided by the Augsburg Labour Court in a decision dated 7.5.2020 – Ref.: 3 Ga 9/20. As a result, many questions arise regarding the home office and labour law.

Homeoffice

There is indeed no uniform definition of the term “home office” to date; it is largely equated with the term “telework”:

“Home office, also known as telework, is a flexible form of work in which employees carry out all or part of their work from their private environment”.

It is important to distinguish between telecommuting and mobile telework. The former is to work exclusively from home. Mobile telework (also known as mobile office) is the term used when working from a fixed location. This means that the employee decides where he wants to work (e.g. in a café, bus or train etc.).

Right for home office

So far, there is no legal basis that gives workers the right to work at home. It is at the employer’s discretion whether or not to grant employees the option of a home office. From the point of view of labour law, therefore, the same regulations must be observed as apply in the company. However, there are currently more and more efforts by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to initiate legal standards.

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