German Companies Split Over Office Return as Legal Guidance Sharpens
Published on 07/25/2026 at 04:22 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
New legal guidelines published in July 2026 are giving German employers clearer authority to call staff back from home offices, yet a sharp divide is emerging between companies enforcing full-time presence and those experimenting with flexible hybrid setups.
The legal framework, rooted in the employer’s right to direct work under German labour law, now offers more concrete parameters for return-to-office orders. However, individual employment contracts and works council co-determination rights remain critical checks on management power. The guidance arrives as many firms reassess the remote-work arrangements that became standard during the pandemic.
As employers across Europe reassess workplace policies, UK businesses face their own set of compliance duties under the Health & Safety at Work Act. A free toolkit provides nine ready-to-use tools, including risk assessments and director liability guides, to help you stay compliant. Download the free Health & Safety at Work Act Toolkit
Mercedes-Benz leads a hardline shift
Nowhere is the push for in-person work more dramatic than at Mercedes-Benz. The carmaker, according to reports from July 2026, plans to scrap home-office rules entirely and mandate a five-day office week for roughly 90,000 employees. The move is part of a broader cost-cutting drive.
Beyond the return to desks, Mercedes-Benz intends to raise the weekly work schedule from 35 to 40 hours without any wage increase. A planned special payment equivalent to 18.4 percent of monthly salary has also been postponed by one year. The company’s financial pressures are acute: its share price has dropped 25 percent since the start of 2026, partly blamed on production bottlenecks for the electric GLC SUV caused by battery shortages. Worker representatives have already signalled protests against the plans.
CEO ambitions clash with office-space realities
The Mercedes-Benz approach mirrors a wider global trend. The KPMG CEO Outlook shows that 83 percent of chief executives worldwide expect their entire workforce to return to offices full-time. Yet translating that expectation into practice is proving difficult.
At consumer goods giant Unilever, internal discussions about a three-day office requirement have hit a snag. The works council raised objections, pointing out that the company lacks enough desks to accommodate such a return. The dispute highlights a widespread problem: many firms reduced their office footprints during the remote-work era and now face infrastructure gaps when trying to bring people back.
Reconfiguring office spaces also means rethinking workplace safety obligations. A comprehensive Health & Safety Toolkit offers instant-access risk assessments, checklists, and toolbox talks covering fire safety, PPE, and first aid — everything you need to protect your team in any working environment. Get the free Health & Safety Toolkit
dm charts a different course with hybrid experiments
The drugstore chain dm is taking an alternative approach. In Karlsruhe, the company is testing new office designs across two 400-square-metre spaces. The goal is to create a functional hybrid that blends home office and in-person work, adapting to how teams now collaborate.
These pilot projects align with research from the Fraunhofer Institute, which suggests that home-office productivity remains high only when remote work does not exceed 60 percent of total working time. The finding implies that neither full-time presence nor fully remote arrangements deliver optimal performance — a balanced mix appears to produce the best results.
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