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New Work

Checklist "mobile working"

More and more companies are currently deciding to allow their employees to work as freely and flexibly as possible, even after the COVID-19 pandemic, as has (involuntarily) become the norm for many of them since spring of 2020. 

However, the future freedoms of the workforce must not, or should not, be limitless. Rather, they must end where the interests of the company, the interests of other employees or the interests of customers conflict. In addition, there are a number of mandatory legal regulations that exclude certain freedoms from the outset. 

For this reason, companies should pay very close attention when (permanently) implementing "mobile working" to ensure that well-intentioned plans do not suddenly boomerang. As a result, there should be clear and legally binding rules for "mobile working".

In this respect, the following keywords give you an overview of the most important topics and aspects that need to be taken into account. In practice, particular attention should be paid to the subtleties.

Checklist

I. Transition to a flexible place of work

  • "Mobile working" is only a reorganization of the place of work, but not a flexibilization of working hours that automatically accompanies it

  • "Mobile working" is not to be confused with pure "home office" activity

  • The freedoms and restrictions in the choice of place of work must be specified (e.g. restriction of mobile work to the Federal Republic of Germany to avoid legal uncertainty)

  • any exceptions of certain activities from "mobile working" (e.g. due to contractual requirements by customers) are to be determined

  • Data protection & IT security

  • Protection of company and business secrets

  • Occupational safety / occupational accidents

  • Costs (e.g. for hardware)

  • Reservation of the right to revoke the authorization for "mobile working”

II. Transition to flexible working hours

  • Transition to a flexible place of work ≠ Transition to flexible working hours

  • Is a new working time model also desired?

  • Strict compliance with the Working Hours Act

III. Miscellaneous

Furthermore, the following should be taken into account:

  • Identification of any side effects/risks (e.g. "dilution of the concept of operation")

  • Safeguarding the participation rights of the works council

  • Selection of a suitable and legally secure form of implementation (individual agreement, directive, works agreement, etc.)

IV.  What else needs to be considered

The introduction of mobile working entails an enormous number of individual questions like hardly any other topic in connection with New Work. In order to avoid potential pitfalls here, individual and case-by-case consulting is recommended.