Germany’s labour minister has pulled back from putting forward legislation to give all citizens a legal right to work from home, according to a report over the weekend.
But a property industry agonising over the future occupation levels of its buildings should continue to monitor government thinking and engage in national debates about the future of the world of work.
German federal labour minister Hubertus Heil of the SPD party told RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland that he has dropped the centre piece of a draft ‘Mobile Working Act’ which would have given Germans a legal right to 24 days minimum a year when they would not have to work in their usual workplace. He has been facing opposition from the government’s coalition partner the CDU.
If the proposal had gone ahead and been widely taken up, it could have fed through to a reduction in floorspace required.
Many working in real estate in Germany will side with the CDU, believing that the proposal was too prescriptive.
Professor Hermann Schnell, head of workplace consulting at Colliers International Germany, is a big fan of flexible working, but says: ‘To create a legally-defined minimum that everyone could then rely on, that is just too inflexible. It doesn’t meet the differentiated needs of our businesses because companies are different.’
Tax advantages
He suggests WFH could be better dealt with by tax advantages for home working. ‘That would be fine...That is necessary because people are using their space, lighting, water, heating and so on more than they do when they are in the office.’
The German government is just one in Europe that is wrestling with the changes accelerated by the Covid pandemic.
Their primary concern is to protect remote workers so that they don’t become second-class employees.
Spanish regulation to support home working has already kicked in. After consultation over the summer with unions and business, from the middle of last month employees have a new right to ask for flexible working hours. Employers must now pay for computer equipment and furniture for employees who work remotely for at least 30% of their time.
Like Germany, Spain is one of the European countries that had relatively less WFH before the pandemic. Eurostat figures show only 3.5% of Spaniards worked partly from home in 2019 compared with a 9% average in the European Union. In Q2, official data shows more than 3.5 million people were working remotely in the country.
Germany’s labour minister will continue with a number of other proposals including legislation to set boundaries for home office hours.
More governments mull change
Other European governments are similarly thinking about the changes in work patterns. The Financial Times reported on 1 October that France is minded to rely on 2017 legislation that limits the time employees are obliged to answer phone calls and emails outside the office. Ireland and Greece are considering legislating on WFH.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries are considered out in front in terms of having had an established flexible working culture for some years already. A Bloomberg article on 7 October about the banking sector’s continuing efficiency drive said that the biggest Dutch banks predict staff will be working about half their time from home once the pandemic is over.
In Germany, the requirement for space may reduce anyway, without Heil’s 24-day proposal. Companies from Siemens in the private sector to Munich’s city administration have announced plans to offer as many employees as possible to work permanently from home, partly to save occupation costs. It may take expansion in new areas to replace such floorspace losses.
Colliers' own data, published on 22 October and based on 250 occupier services clients across nine industry sectors, shows that 67% are now seeking a more flexible workplace model, including co-working and working from home.
For Schnell, the most important message must be that the world of workplaces in offices is on ‘a journey’ already. ‘It’s moving from big primitive spaces of a low standard, with very little consideration for workflow and a sole focus on numbers of people and square metres, and an average amount of space per person that has been going down for the last 20 years.
‘The corona crisis, and an economic downturn, will lead to an acceleration of fresh ideas. Let’s think about how we design our offices to really meet our business needs.’
