Occupational safety does not stop at the office door: the duties under the Occupational Health and Safety Act apply when employees work from home too. The employer remains responsible for the risk assessment, safety training and compliance with working time rules, regardless of where the laptop sits.
Telework or mobile working? The distinction decides
Two cases must be kept apart in law, because different rules apply:
- Telework station under section 2 paragraph 7 ArbStättV: a screen workstation permanently set up by the employer in the employee's private space, with agreed working hours and duration. The Workplace Ordinance applies in part here, in particular the requirements for screen work in Annex number 6.
- Mobile working or remote work without a fixed set-up: the employer does not install a workstation and work takes place in changing locations. The Workplace Ordinance does not apply here, but the Occupational Health and Safety Act and DGUV Regulation 1 certainly do.
In practice many office businesses fall into the second case. That reduces the requirements for physical equipment, but it does not remove the duty to assess and to train.
Risk assessment: what has to be evaluated at home
The risk assessment must cover working from home as well. A separate section or supplementary sheet covering the typical points works well:
- Ergonomics: desk, chair, monitor size, lighting and glare. The criteria are the same as at the screen workstation in the office.
- Electrical safety: power strips, cable management, trip hazards.
- Mental stress: availability, blurred boundaries, missing social exchange. These factors belong explicitly in the assessment of mental stress.
- First aid and emergencies: who is informed if someone working alone is injured?
The employer has no right of access to the home. The assessment is therefore usually based on a self-declaration by the employee using a checklist, supplemented by advice from the occupational safety specialist. Willingness to allow a visit should be settled in the remote-work agreement.
The remote-work agreement as the anchor document
Almost every open question can be settled in advance in a written agreement. It is not a legal requirement, but it is the document everyone involved refers back to later. It should sensibly cover:
- Scope and timing: how many days, on which days, with what notice.
- Availability: in which time window, and expressly that no response is expected outside it. This is at the same time a measure against mental stress.
- Recording of working time: how it is done, and that the rest period of generally eleven hours applies at home too.
- Equipment: which devices the employer provides, who maintains them, what happens if something breaks.
- Site visits: whether and under what conditions an announced visit is possible. A right of access arises only through consent.
- Reporting routes for accidents and faults: who the person notifies, and within what time.
- Data protection and confidentiality in the domestic setting, particularly where other people are present.
The ergonomics check by self-declaration
Because the employer may not enter the home, the assessment runs through a self-declaration. To make it meaningful it should ask about specific conditions rather than opinions. Questions that work well:
- Is the monitor positioned so that the top line is roughly at eye level, and is the viewing distance sufficient?
- Is the work surface large enough for monitor, keyboard and documents?
- Can the chair be adjusted for height and backrest, and are both feet fully on the floor?
- Is the monitor at right angles to the window, so that neither glare nor reflection occurs?
- Is the light sufficient in the evening, or is only the ceiling light used?
- Are cables routed so that nobody trips over them, and are power strips not overloaded?
The measures follow from the answers: a monitor that is too small gets replaced, a missing desk lamp is provided, an unfavourable layout is corrected through advice. The criteria are the same as in the office, set out in Setting up a screen workstation correctly. The office safety checklist shows which points are still open across the business.
Mental stress when working from home
This is the point most often missing from remote-work assessments, even though it is the most important. The strain factors differ from the office:
- Blurred boundaries. Without a commute the transition is missing. Going back to the computer in the evening shortens the rest period unnoticed.
- Expectation of availability. Where it is unclear when a reply is expected, people reply always, just in case.
- Missing informal exchange. Problems that get solved in passing in the office remain open or turn into conflicts.
- Invisibility. People who are rarely in the office worry about visibility and compensate by working more.
These factors belong explicitly in the assessment of mental stress. Effective measures are mostly organisational and cost nothing: binding availability windows, fixed office days for exchange, clear rules for messages outside working hours.
Training, working time and equipment
Safety training in the office under section 12 ArbSchG must cover the specifics of remote work: setting up ergonomically, breaks and screen work, reporting routes after an accident. It must be documented like any other training.
The Working Time Act applies unchanged: maximum working hours, rest breaks and the rest period of generally eleven hours must be observed at home too and recorded. Where a telework station is permanently set up, the employer also bears the equipment; for mobile working a clear rule on which devices are provided is advisable.
Where the employer's duties end
Just as important as the duties is what the employer may not and need not do. Three points regularly cause uncertainty.
First, there is no right of access to the home. The inviolability of the home takes precedence over any interest in inspection. A visit is possible only with consent, and consent cannot be replaced by a clause in the employment contract.
Second, the employer may not set up continuous monitoring to check working time or presence. Recording working time is permissible; observing the person is not.
Third, responsibility ends where private life begins. The employer must assess and advise on the activity, not furnish the home or take responsibility for its structural condition. Where a telework station has been set up this applies with limits, because the employer provides the equipment.
What the employer must document
The records for remote work do not differ fundamentally from those in the office; they are simply forgotten more often. These four belong on file:
- The remote-work or telework agreement with the points listed above.
- The part of the risk assessment covering work at home, including the completed self-declarations and the measures derived from them.
- The training record with the remote-work-specific content.
- Evidence of the equipment provided, where a telework station has been set up.
A common mistake is to treat remote work as an appendix and assess only the office. Where a third of the workforce works from home half the time, that is no longer an exception but a regular workstation type with the same standing in the assessment as the screen workstation in the office.
A frequent special case is working from abroad, for example as a workation. Here the employment law and social insurance law of the host country apply in addition, and cover under German statutory accident insurance is not guaranteed in every case. If your business permits this, settle the question before the first approval rather than after it.
Working from home is insured too
Employees working in their home are covered by statutory accident insurance to the same extent as in the workplace (section 8 SGB VII). Routes within the home that serve the work are also covered. An accident while working from home is therefore reportable just like an accident in the office. Where the line to private activity runs is decided case by case, and your responsible employers' liability insurance association is the right point of contact for that.
The topic is solved in practice when the agreement, checklist, training and records sit in one place. Safety Club supports office and administrative businesses with an occupational safety specialist on site plus digital, audit-proof documentation. How getting started works is shown in the four-step process; we are happy to clarify open questions in an initial conversation.
This article is general guidance and does not replace legal advice on your individual case. What governs is the current version of the ArbSchG, ArbStättV and SGB VII, together with how your employers' liability insurance association (Berufsgenossenschaft, BG) interprets it.
