In an interview, Alfred Löckle, Chairman of the General Works Council, explains how this came about.
Why does Bosch need a works agreement on remote work?
On the one hand, our rules on telecommuting needed to be revised; on the other hand, the employer wanted to introduce modern working conditions at the new research center in Renningen. We’ve been negotiating this since 2012, but an agreement initially fell through because management insisted on a system based purely on trust, without any form of time tracking. That’s not something we can agree to with the Works Council.
What led to the agreement?
On our side, the results of our employee survey. We received around 1,500 responses from the development center in Schwieberdingen. More than half of the employees there would like to be able to adjust their working hours to their personal needs—for example, taking a day off on short notice. In addition, only a very small proportion of employees feel stressed by emails after work. This encouraged us to look for solutions. The breakthrough came when the employer accepted that working hours would also be tracked when employees work remotely.
How does this work in practice?
Employees enter their own working hours into the system. In doing so, they decide when they are available and record the times they spend in the office. Monday through Friday remain standard working hours even when working remotely; Saturday can be used on a voluntary basis to compensate for time off during the week. Collective bargaining agreements and legal provisions regarding maximum working hours, breaks, and overtime pay naturally continue to apply.
How does the works council plan to monitor this? Doesn’t working from home carry the risk of massive overtime?
We can’t prevent employees from logging into the system from home even now. The company agreement ensures that work done remotely is tracked and compensated. Of course, this requires a high degree of self-organization. That’s why we’ve developed a checklist that anyone can use to determine whether they’re suited for remote work. For example, it must be ensured that a dedicated workspace is available where children won’t constantly interrupt.
What happens if everyone at Bosch suddenly wants to work from home?
That won’t happen—the nature of work in production and manufacturing simply doesn’t allow for it. It applies to traditional office-based roles, such as those in development, planning, and IT departments. In those areas, a supervisor may only refuse to allow remote work for valid reasons. However, we’re currently finding that many supervisors are struggling to facilitate remote work. In pilot projects across various departments at Bosch, employees were out of the office for between half a day and one day per week.
VW and Daimler also use technical measures to prevent employees from accessing work emails at home—why doesn’t Bosch do the same?
Our strategy was not only to guarantee employees the right to work remotely, but also the freedom to decide how to do so. In other words, they decide where and when they work—not the employer. We’re now observing how this plays out in practice. If the system doesn’t hold up and the company agreement leads to overtime, we can always make technical adjustments.
