What are the home office requirements?

Due to the Corona crisis, many companies have decided to let their employees work from home. While the home office is met with mixed feelings, laws are also often not clearly defined. So far, there is neither a legal right nor an obligation to home office.

The most important requirements for the home office

Even though a new home office law is being planned, the following regulations still apply so far:

• Occupational health and safety is also the top priority for the home office. The employer is obliged to check which occupational health and safety measures are necessary when working from home and what potential hazards the employee is exposed to in the home office.
• The Working Hours Act also applies in the home office and provides clear guidelines regarding maximum working hours and rest periods. Since this is difficult to verify in the home office, just also a change in the law is considered in this regard.
• Your employer is also obliged in the home office to ensure data protection. As an important requirement in the home office is that data protection provisions are observed by the employee, for example, that no family member has access to the company PC or that data is sent only via VPN.

Home office requirements in the employment contract?

It is best to let all home office agreements in advance contractually. Hierzu zählen die Selbstgestaltung der vorgegebenen Arbeitszeit, die Dokumentation eventueller Überstunden oder ein Verbot der Nutzung von privaten Arbeitsmitteln.