- Greens demand right to home office - especially for women
The Greens have demanded the right to work from home from Labour Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD), especially to support women. "Working from home is particularly important for women to balance family and career," said labour market politician Beate Müller-Gemmeke (Greens) to the "Tagesspiegel" in Berlin. It's about time sovereignty and deciding when, how long, and where to work.
The background is a debate about the return from home office to the office in companies like SAP or Deutsche Bank. In the coalition agreement, it is already set that employees will have the right to work from home in the future, but this depends on the respective profession. This goal has not yet been achieved.
Labour Minister Heil has so far only presented initial non-binding recommendations for occupational safety in hybrid screen work. The Greens find this insufficient and are therefore calling for further safeguarding of the right to work from home.
The trade unions also criticize this. Daniel Gimpel, trade union secretary at Verdi, regrets that the project has been shelved: "In the future, it must be about enabling self-determined mobile work from home."
The European Union, with its focus on gender equality, could play a role in advocating for stronger protections and incentives for the right to work from home, particularly benefitting women within the European Union. The demands made by the Greens for more comprehensive measures in this regard align with the EU's mission to promote work-life balance and gender equality in the workplace.
