Who is entitled to a home office?

During the Corona crisis, many employers sent their employees to the home office in order to reduce the risk of infection for everyone and to protect risk groups. Many people are currently asking the question: Do employees have the right to work from home?

A right to work from home, which is anchored in law, does not (yet) exist in Germany. The federal government is currently working on a law that will legally regulate the right to work from home even

As long as the law has not come into force, the decision for or against home office remains with the employer: In the employment relationship, he is responsible for the so-called right of direction according to §106 GewO. Thereafter, the employer specifies the owed activity in terms of content, time and place of work, unless this is already regulated in more detail in the employment contract.

Entitlement to home office possible in individual cases

In a few individual cases, however, the employee may be entitled to a home office: For example, collective agreements or works agreements can regulate the right to work from home.

In addition, the right to work from home can arise from the principle of equal treatment under labor law or be based on health. In principle, every employee has a right to employment. This right is guaranteed in the employment contract and is constitutionally protected.

Employer bears the cost of home office.

The employer bears the costs if the employee works in the home office with the consent or at the instigation of the employer. In this case, the employee can assert a claim for reimbursement of expenses in accordance with Section 670 BGB.

On the other hand, the employee cannot demand reimbursement from the employer if, in his own interest, he also sets up an office at home, although there is a job for him in the company. Then the employee has to bear the costs himself.

Right to work from home: current legal situation

It is true that there is no independent, legally regulated right to home office or only those regulations that contain no further provisions other than definitions. Nevertheless, there are regulations that employers must observe when working from home.

Labor and data protection as well as the Working Hours Act define binding requirements for working in the home office. That is why the employer should now be familiar with the labor law requirements and what framework conditions exist. In this article, we have summarized the most important regulations for working from home for you.

Regulate home office and working hours safely and flexibly –

Because many companies had to switch to home office at short notice, i.e. without preparation time, in the past few months, most of the employees were working from the mobile office (mobile working). This means that the employee performed his work outside of the business premises, but in contrast to the home office, not at a fixed workplace set up by the employer.

According to DGUV, this was legally okay: If working from home is scheduled for a short period of time and if it is planned from the outset for a limited period of time, this working model is not considered a home office in the sense of teleworking , but rather mobile working. In the long run, however, this is not a solution and some employees are back in the company.

But what's next for home and mobile offices? While the law for the right to work from home is still in the making, employers are still faced with a number of questions:

• How can the legal framework and the ECJ ruling on recording working time be implemented in practice?
• Who bears which costs for home office?
• How can employers ensure work and data protection in the home office?
• And how can you ensure that maximum and minimum working hours and rest periods are observed?

As an employer, you will receive answers to these questions in the online seminar to regulate working hours safely and flexibly. An experienced speaker from the communicates live digitally in a video stream how you can clearly and effectively design work models 4.0 for employees and companies.

You can conveniently participate on your PC from home. Thanks to innovative technology, you always have the opportunity to ask your individual questions at this online seminar. An interactive exchange by means of video and audio transmission is always possible and desirable.