Heatwaves and Heavier Regulators: German Employers Face a Summer of Compliance Overhauls
19.06.2026 - 03:26:04 | boerse-global.de
Meteorologists are predicting temperatures of up to 37 degrees Celsius for mid-June 2026 across Germany, and with them comes a wave of obligations that many companies may overlook. Under the workplace rule ASR A3.5, employers must take active steps once indoor temperatures exceed 30 degrees. When a room hits 35 degrees, it is officially no longer suitable for work unless protective measures are in place. While working from home becomes a natural alternative during heat spells, there is no blanket legal entitlement to “Hitzefrei” – heat leave.
Since 1 January 2026, an updated DGUV Regulation 2 has also taken effect. The threshold for simplified mandatory occupational health care has risen from 10 to 20 employees. Under certain conditions, digital safety supervision by phone or online meeting is now permissible.
Even with clear regulatory duties like ASR A3.5 and DGUV Regulation 2, many employers still struggle to document their risk assessments correctly. A free Risk Assessment Toolkit gives you 41 ready-to-use templates for fire safety, manual handling, first aid, and lone working so you can stay compliant without starting from scratch. Download the free Risk Assessment Toolkit
Employee Pushback and the Coffee Badging Trap
Even as employers grapple with these duties, a sizeable portion of the workforce is already bending or breaking existing home-office rules. A survey of 1,000 employees conducted by the platform Indeed shows that nearly one in ten workers are logging remote hours more often than their company agreements allow. 27 percent bypass mandatory office quotas through informal arrangements. The so-called “coffee badging” phenomenon, documented in an Owl Labs report, sees 41 percent of hybrid staff briefly show face in the office only to return home to work.
This behaviour carries legal risk. Ignoring a contractually stipulated office presence obligation can lead to warnings and, in repeated cases, dismissal. Underlying the defiance is deep dissatisfaction: 57.3 percent of employees are unhappy with their current home-office arrangements. 42 percent said they would switch jobs outright if flexible models were withdrawn.
Tax Deductions: No More Loose Receipts
The Federal Fiscal Court (Bundesfinanzhof) has tightened the screws on home-office expense claims. With a ruling on 24 March 2026 (file number VIII R 6/24), the court held that costs for a home office must be recorded promptly, individually, and separately from other operating expenses. Simply collecting receipts or compiling them afterwards no longer suffices. If the documentation rules are violated, the entire deduction for the home office is forfeited – even if the workspace itself would have been tax-deductible in principle.
Digital Time Tracking Becomes Mandatory
From 2026, electronic working-time recording is set to become standard across the DACH region. In Germany, violations can trigger fines of up to €30,000. A draft bill from the Federal Ministry of Labour also proposes shifting from a daily to a weekly maximum working-time limit, but only where a collective bargaining agreement is in place. That restriction has drawn criticism from employer associations such as Gesamtmetall and Die Familienunternehmer.
The European Court of Justice added further clarity with a ruling on 9 October 2025 (case C-110/24): travel in a company car to a customer counts as full working time – provided the employer dictates the trip details. The statutory rest period of eleven hours begins only when the employee returns to their base.
GPS Surveillance Has Limits
Companies using location tracking for field-service time recording face strict legal boundaries. Sporadic location checks to document working hours may be permissible, but permanent geo-positioning or movement profiling is banned. This has been confirmed by landmark decisions from the Federal Labour Court (27 July 2017) and the Heilbronn Labour Court (30 January 2019). Employers must also respect the works council’s co-determination rights when introducing such systems.
As workplace compliance requirements multiply, having the right documentation is critical. Over 37,000 UK companies already rely on the free Health & Safety Toolkit, which includes risk assessments, COSHH checklists, PPE logs, and toolbox talks that align with UK regulations like the Health & Safety at Work Act. Get the free Health & Safety Toolkit
Less Paperwork for Contracts – But Not for Deductions
On the administrative front, the Proof of Employment Act (Nachweisgesetz) has been relaxed since 1 January 2025. Key contract terms and parental leave applications can now be submitted electronically in text form. Employment references may also be issued digitally with qualified electronic signatures, subject to the employee’s consent. Fixed-term contracts that run until the employee reaches retirement age can likewise be concluded in text form.
