Amsterdam Court Overrides Works Council to Impose 40% Office Rule at Booking.com

Booking.com has won court backing to require staff to spend at least 40% of their working time in the office, after the company's works council refused to approve the measure and a court in Amsterdam issued a ruling replacing that consent.

The court stressed the employer's right to determine where work is carried out within reasonable limits, while making clear the decision does not set a general standard for other companies.

Transition period, hardship clause and desk guarantees

Management had originally sought a fixed attendance rate of 50 to 60%. What was ultimately enforced is an obligation to spend 40% of working time in the office, accompanied by a six-month transition period and a hardship clause.

In a regular five-day week, that quota averages out to two office days. The calculation is to be made on a monthly basis, combined with a fixed weekly team day. At the same time, the court obliged the company to provide a sufficient number of desks for its workforce.

In its reasoning, the court noted that Booking.com did not have to present a rigorous scientific measurement of success or a prior baseline assessment to introduce the attendance requirement. Instead, it was up to the works council to demonstrate concrete disadvantages for employees.

Dispute over monitoring and the history of the policy

Until 2020, full office attendance applied at Booking.com. From February 2022 the company tested a hybrid pilot model and introduced a non-binding recommendation of at least 40% office time as of 1 July 2023. A measurement covering the period from the third quarter of 2024 to the third quarter of 2025 showed, however, that under the voluntary arrangement only 27% of employees reached that threshold.

The works council countered that 87.1% of employees had been satisfied with the voluntary model, and also criticised planned checks based on network data.

The court has for now blocked monitoring through ID data: data from access passes may not yet be passed on to managers. According to the ruling, the specific method of monitoring still requires the formal approval of the works council.

A broader shift toward stricter attendance rules

The Booking.com decision comes at a time when several major corporations are tightening their rules on mobile working. At Mercedes-Benz, a new works agreement is due to apply from 1 January 2027, though the works council's approval is still outstanding.

After termination of the existing agreement, which arithmetically permitted up to 100% home office, managers are to be able to assign full-time employees up to four office days per week without separate justification.

According to a company spokesperson, four days are to become the standard; the measure is part of a productivity initiative after chief executive Ola Källenius recently spoke out in favour of five attendance days. Deutsche Bahn is also set to make three office days per week the standard.

Labour market data from the portal Indeed support this shift: for office jobs, the share of home office recently fell by 1.6 percentage points compared with the previous quarter.

The decline was sharpest in banking and finance at 4.1 percentage points, followed by data and analytics at 2.6 percentage points, human resources at 2.1 percentage points and marketing at 2.0 percentage points. Indeed economist Virginia Sondergeld observed that employers increasingly regard mobile working as an obstacle.

On related questions, the Institut Arbeit und Wirtschaft (IAW) at the University of Bremen and the Bremen Chamber of Employees examined hybrid models in a public authority and an IT service provider.

The researchers warned of risks of blurring boundaries as well as strains on team cooperation caused by the lack of informal exchange, and recommended binding agreements on availability, clear performance rules and structured training for managers.