The home office will be more expensive next winter: most households will have to pay much more for heating and electricity than they did a year ago. Those who work at home also increase their electricity bills. High energy prices also cause heating costs to skyrocket.
This raises the question of who pays these additional costs? Blick asked big employers. The result is clear: neither Coop, Migros, ABB, SBB, Swisscom, Roche, nor Novartis contribute to ancillary housing costs and do not plan to make such financial contributions in the future.
The federal government is wary of additional costs
The logic is the same everywhere: “In principle, all Novartis employees in Switzerland have access to a fully equipped and heated workplace at one of our locations. For example, Novartis says, “Nobody has to work from home if they don’t want to.”
Only the federal government recognizes that employees are entitled to an annual lump sum payment for their share of rent, as well as for furniture, increased electricity consumption, and other additional expenses – but only if the facility does not have a permanent place of work.
The management also monitors large cost increases for heating and electricity: “If electricity costs rise sharply and the flat rate no longer covers the costs incurred, the amount of flat rate is controlled,” he said. to request.
expressly regulated by law
In principle, Swiss law provides for such cost sharing only where an employer does not provide a permanent workplace for a worker in the office. Electricity, telephone or heating expenses may be requested.
But the home office can also cost money in other ways: depending on whether you’re working at the desk in the living room or setting up a real study with a desk, office chair, and large monitors. Companies that provide sufficient working space in the office do not need to join the voluntary home office here either.
Big differences in working materials
However, the Blick survey shows that some companies are still generous. “ABB provides its employees with the tools they need to work from home,” a media spokesperson said. At Roche, employees can borrow office furniture or monitors to take home. SBB and Swisscom provide mobile devices. The federal government is also generous: employees are given technical infrastructure and study materials to take home.
Retailers Migros and Coop do not want to be aware of such a participation. After all, a home office is not possible for most employees, for example, because they work in sales or logistics. For them, talking about cost sharing in the home office is a luxury issue.
The impending energy shortage for the coming winter could have ramifications for the home office as well. If the federal government ordered the home office to save on electricity costs, it would be done voluntarily. But during the pandemic, the federal government reacted to the home office obligation with a regulation thus exempting companies from any cost contributions.