Companies adhere to the obligation to work from home

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Hamburg (dpa) - Due to the corona pandemic, companies must offer their employees to work from home - if this is at all possible.

However, the approaches to the controls of this obligation vary greatly, as a survey by the German Press Agency shows.

Some have no figures at all, while others have fairly detailed accounts of their checks.

In general it can be said: Most companies obviously adhere to the guidelines.

So far, no fines have been imposed, although these in the amount of up to 30,000 euros are only possible if orders issued due to complaints are not observed.

A study by the Munich Ifo Institute sees a lot of room for improvement when it comes to home office.

According to the information, the proportion of companies using home office was 81 percent in February - but only around 30 percent of employees worked at least partially from home.

“The potential is 56 percent,” said Ifo researcher Jean-Victor Alipour, one of the authors.

Small and medium-sized companies in particular could therefore do a lot more.

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The Prime Minister of the federal states and Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) hope that the home office will minimize the risk of infection.

Therefore, at their most recent round of negotiations last Wednesday, they agreed to extend the home office obligation, which has been in force since January 27, beyond March 15, initially until the end of April.

EU Labor Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, on the other hand, is against a legal obligation to work from home.

"Saying now:" Anyone who can, must also work from home "- I'm not particularly in favor of that."

In his opinion, this should be negotiated by employers and employees.

«Absolute right?

No!

Absolute duty?

No!"

In the most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, most companies adhere to the obligation to work from home during pandemic times.

Only just under six percent of the controlled companies that have to enable their employees to work from home would have "not offered this or not offered this according to the operational possibilities," said the NRW Ministry of Labor on request.

According to the information, inspectors had examined 2799 companies in February because of several corona rules.

1800 of the companies were not bound by the obligation - home office was not possible for them.

There were no defects in the 941 to which the specification was applied.

In Lower Saxony, according to the Ministry of Social Affairs, 135 companies were checked as of February 15 and 10 violations were found.

According to the trade supervisory authority, 8 violations have been found in 33 controls in Bremen since February 15.

"Experience so far indicates that the vast majority of employers implement the regulation," said a spokesman for the authority.

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Hamburg's office for occupational safety has checked more than 800 companies in writing or through unannounced visits since the end of January.

Of the around 270 companies visited, 94 percent had largely complied with the regulations, said a spokesman for the judicial authority.

The written controls of around 550 companies were not quite as good.

More than a third did not have a home office risk assessment, and psychological stress was not considered in more than half of the assessments.

The authorities in Saxony-Anhalt said they had made 558 controls by the beginning of March.

297 violations were found, whereby these related to both the SARS-CoV-2 occupational health and safety regulation and the occupational health and safety ordinance.

"A separate list of violations of the home office obligation is not possible," said the State Office for Consumer Protection.

In SAXONY, 25 complaints on the subject of home office were processed by the occupational health and safety authority by mid-February.

58 companies were written to, 28 were checked at the company location.

According to the Ministry of Social Affairs, there are currently around 1000 inspections in HESSEN, the results of which should be available in mid-March.

"To review the implementation of the home office regulations, written information is first obtained from the companies," explained the ministry.

Then a decision will be made on an on-site inspection.

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The state occupational safety authority responsible for Schleswig-Holstein at the Unfallkasse Nord received around 220 inquiries and complaints about the Corona occupational safety ordinance by the beginning of March.

There are currently ten processes in progress.

In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the State Office for Health and Social Affairs had checked at least 90 companies by the end of February - the home office area was only one of just under 40 points.

In SAARLAND, deficiencies were found in 26 of the 51 companies checked, as reported by the Environment Ministry.

These were, for example, deficits in the provision of FFP2 masks.

In Brandenburg, since January 27, the responsible state office for occupational safety, consumer protection and health has received 20 complaints about a lack of home office offers from employers.

The Ministry of Social Affairs announced that no fines were imposed.

Officials of the state office investigated a total of 40 complaints about non-compliance with Corona Schuzz measures in companies in January and February.

Most of them were justified.

Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate did not provide any figures to control the home office obligation.

In Baden-Württemberg, however, there is a state-wide focus campaign on the topic of home office, with 1500 companies being called and visited if there are any doubts.

Bavaria and Rhineland-Palatinate do not collect any data.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210308-99-731625 / 2

Leaflets on Corona occupational safety

Information on home office requirements