HR-Glossar

Homeoffice-Regelung (remote work arrangement)

What remote work means in German employment law, how Telearbeit differs from mobile working and what belongs in an agreement.

1. What is Homeoffice-Regelung (remote work arrangement)?

"Homeoffice" is the everyday German word for working away from the employer's premises. In law two different things hide behind it, and the distinction has practical consequences. English has only "remote work" for both, which is why the two are set out separately here:

- Telearbeit within the meaning of Section 2(7) ArbStättV is a display screen workstation set up permanently by the employer in the employee's home. The requirements of the Workplace Ordinance apply to it – equipment, risk assessment, instruction. - Mobile working is location-independent work with no permanently established workstation – at home, on the move, wherever. The Workplace Ordinance does not apply here; occupational safety and the risk assessment nevertheless do.

There is no statutory right to work remotely. It rests on agreement – the employment contract, a works agreement or a supplementary agreement. Equally, the employer cannot order it unilaterally where nothing has been agreed. Both directions matter: a group-wide return-to-office mandate cannot simply be imposed where remote work has become contractually established.

Unchanged throughout: the Working Time Act with maximum hours and rest periods, the duty to record working time, data protection, occupational safety with the risk assessment under Section 5 ArbSchG, and statutory accident insurance – the last with a known difficulty in drawing the line around private movements within one's own home.

2. Origin and development

Telearbeit has existed since the 1990s but long remained marginal. The pandemic changed that within weeks and showed in the process that far more work functions independently of location than had been assumed.

What has remained is hybrid work as the normal case – and a legal position that has followed only partly. A general right to work remotely has been discussed repeatedly and not introduced. What did arrive are selective adjustments: the tax treatment, clarifications on accident insurance cover, and the recognition that the duty to record working time applies regardless of location.

3. Core principles and how it works

Voluntary on both sides

Without an agreement there is neither a right nor a power to direct. That holds in both directions.

Keep Telearbeit and mobile working apart

Whether the Workplace Ordinance applies, with its equipment requirements, turns on this distinction.

Working time law applies regardless of location

Maximum hours, breaks, rest periods and the duty to record do not stop at the front door.

Occupational safety remains the employer's duty

The risk assessment extends to the activity, not to the premises. It has to be produced for mobile working too.

Data protection at home

Visibility to third parties, paper records, private networks and devices – that belongs settled, not left to chance.

4. Who is Homeoffice-Regelung (remote work arrangement) relevant for?

  • Businesses with screen-based work – remote work is the expectation there today.
  • Managers – steering at a distance is their real task in this.
  • Employees balancing work and care – for them it is often the decisive point.
  • Works councils – entitled to co-determination on how it is arranged.
  • Data protection and IT – devices, access and records sit in their area.

5. How it differs from related terms

- Telearbeit and mobile working – a permanently established workstation against location-independent work; the Workplace Ordinance applies only to the first. - Remote work and trust-based working time – place against time. Two decisions frequently taken together. - Remote work and business travel – the home is not an external place of work; travel cost rules do not apply. - Remote work and working abroad – location-independent work across the border raises questions of social security, tax and permanent establishment. That is no longer remote work but a matter of its own.

6. Variants and adaptations

- Fully remote – with no regular attendance at the premises. - Hybrid with fixed days – predictable for the team and the business. - Hybrid as needed – flexible, but coordination-heavy. - Occasional mobile working – with no fixed rule, on request. - A Telearbeit workstation – set up by the employer, with the Workplace Ordinance's requirements.

7. Advantages and challenges

Advantages

  • Commuting time falls away and work and life combine more easily
  • A wider field of candidates, independent of catchment area
  • Less floor space needed on site
  • Frequently less interrupted work on tasks demanding concentration
  • A noticeable argument in the competition for skilled people

Challenges

  • Social ties and informal exchange do not arise by themselves
  • The boundary between work and private life erodes
  • Leading at a distance calls for different tools and more awareness
  • Data protection and information security are harder to enforce
  • Accident insurance cover is prone to line-drawing problems for movements within the home
  • Not all work is suitable – which creates inequality within the business

8. Best practices for implementation

Agree in writing what applies

Extent, place, availability, equipment, who bears which costs, data protection and the option to return to the premises. Those seven points cover most disputes.

Provide the equipment rather than assuming it

An employer expecting equipment should supply it. That settles liability, maintenance and data protection at the same time.

A risk assessment for mobile working too

It is a duty and is regularly overlooked, because the place is not the employer's premises.

Provide for a return

An arrangement promising remote work permanently and irrevocably can hardly be changed later.

Plan attendance deliberately

What arises incidentally in an office – induction, coordination, belonging – needs scheduling in a hybrid model.

9. Tips for employers and employees

For employers

  • **Name Telearbeit or mobile working expressly** – the Workplace Ordinance duties turn on it
  • **The duty to record applies at home too** – a model without recording is not a model
  • **Assess working abroad separately** – social security, tax and permanent establishment are separate questions there
  • **Involve the works council** – how it is arranged is subject to co-determination

For employees

  • **There is no right to it** – remote work rests on agreement, not on statute
  • **Record your hours and keep rest periods** – they protect you
  • **Check the tax deductions** – there is an allowance for days worked at home and separate rules for a study
  • **Ask before working from abroad** – legally that is something other than remote work

10. Conclusion

Remote work has become normal without acquiring a legal frame of its own. It rests on agreement – there is neither a right to it nor a power to order it – and all existing duties continue to apply: the Working Time Act, the duty to record, occupational safety, data protection. The most important distinction for a business is between Telearbeit and mobile working, because the Workplace Ordinance's requirements turn on it; English blurs the two into "remote work", which is why the terms are worth keeping apart. A written agreement covering seven points – extent, place, availability, equipment, costs, data protection, return – settles most of the questions before they arise.

One of those questions deserves separate attention in a group: working from another country is not remote work. It raises tax, contribution and permanent establishment questions, and it is triggered most often by nobody deciding anything at all.

Sources

Related terms

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