The employees of the Hessian state administration should be given the right to mobile work.

This is what it says in a draft law that the FDP parliamentary group intends to introduce into parliamentary deliberations in the next week of the session.

That this practice works was not only shown by the Corona crisis, parliamentary group leader René Rock stated in a press conference on Wednesday.

Ewald Hetrodt

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung in Wiesbaden.

  • Follow I follow

The FDP in the state parliament has been working according to the model for two and a half years. "We live this successfully," said Rock. But the goal must be to make the entire state administration a "pioneer" of mobile working. This can only be achieved in everyday life if there is a justifiable claim that gives everyone involved legal certainty. It should extend to two of the five days of the week and be a "contribution to more employee sovereignty".

The Hessian Central Office for Data Processing (HZD) has laid the basic building blocks for mobile work with the "HessenPC" program, the "HessenAccess" access and the "Hessen smartphone", the FDP states.

It is not easy to determine how many administrative employees are currently working with this technology.

It is important to equip the state authorities nationwide with the appropriate mobile devices and docking stations.

In addition, central prerequisites such as the electronic file, digital processes and work surfaces as well as a nationwide good and stable internet supply were missing.

Also open to the SPD

The FDP conducts a survey published by the IT competence center of the Berlin Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems.

According to this, 14.6 percent of the respondents in Hesse stated that in 2020 they would not have been able to work from home due to their poor internet connection.

At the same time, 55.9 percent said they worked from home at least occasionally.

The SPD parliamentary group was open-minded.

"Basically, it is good and right to use the technical possibilities that have arisen with digitization in order to modernize the world of work in the state service and to make the state of Hesse more attractive as an employer," said the parliamentary managing director, Günter Rudolph.

However, promoting working in the home office should not be associated with a reduction in employee rights.

There must continue to be clear rules for working hours, occupational safety and the ergonomic design of workplaces at home.

In order to guarantee this, the co-determination of the staff councils is essential.

At the moment, working in the home office is failing in many urban areas where broadband is still inadequate in large parts of the country.

The shortage of personnel in the public service is added.

A legal right to work from home could not change that.

Nevertheless, the advance of the FDP is a "step in the right direction".