Spd wants to continue to enforce right to home office
SPD insists on legal right to home office.
The deputy chairwoman of the parliamentary group, katja mast, told the deutsche presse-agentur: "for the SPD parliamentary group, the right to mobile working is far from off the table. Those who boldly go forward politically must expect to be resisted, we’re used to that. That is why we will not let up."
Mast also said: "the last few months have shown how much mobile work can relieve the burden on employees. The corona pandemic clearly shows us what is possible. In the coming weeks, more people will certainly be working from home again."A right to mobile working is not a panacea, but it does create protection and security for employers and employees.
There is considerable resistance to the plans within the union. A draft by federal labor minister hubertus heil (SPD) was initially stopped by the chancellor’s office. The draft provides for a legal right to mobile working. Employees with a five-day week should be allowed to work 24 days a year on the road or in a home office. The prerequisite is that the activity is suitable for this and that there are no operational reasons against it.
The chancellor’s office had said on tuesday that the draft was not suitable for further coordination between the federal ministries. The coalition agreement contains a right to information, but no legal entitlement to a home office. Without such interdepartmental coordination, the bill would have failed.
"It is a tragedy that the grand coalition is once again arguing on the subject of home office instead of single-mindedly modernizing the country," said the labor market policy spokesman of the FDP parliamentary group, johannes vogel. "Labor minister heil must change his proposal in such a way that bureaucracy is reduced instead of being built up as it is now. We need more home office, not more bureaucracy."In addition, a modernization of the working time law is necessary. "As long as heil does not look at these central issues together, no real modernization will be possible."
The chairman of the federal employment agency (BA), detlef scheele, told the funke media group (saturday) that heil could count on his support for the proposal "in broad terms". "24 days of home office per year – that’s a framework that certainly doesn’t overburden anyone," says scheele. "The trick is in the details – for example, in the question of whether one loses one’s entitlement to a permanent job if one works from home on a regular basis."
