{
  "id": 10861913,
  "title": "Homeoffice: Beschäftigte bei Mercedes sollen künftig wieder vier Tage pro Woche ins Büro",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/30/homeoffice-beschaftigte-bei-mercedes-sollen-kunftig-wieder-vier-tage",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-30T05:07:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Handelsblatt",
    "slug": "handelsblatt",
    "url": "https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/industrie/homeoffice-mercedes-mitarbeiter-sollen-wieder-vier-tage-pro-woche-ins-buero-01/100258286.html"
  },
  "original_language": "de",
  "account": "Mercedes-Benz plans to tighten its home office rules, requiring employees to work four days per week in the office. The DAX company informed its German staff via email on Tuesday. The current corporate agreement, from 2016, allowed employees to work up to five days from home. During the coronavirus pandemic, this arrangement proved useful, but concerns were growing about presence in the office. Only around 50 percent of employees were present in the office at that time, according to company sources. Some employees had not returned to the office at all. Britta Seeger, the labor director, stated in a December 2025 interview in Handelsblatt that the company had lost individuals in the home office setup. She emphasized that in-person collaboration is vital for their teams. Mercedes has been struggling with declining profits and sales figures, particularly in Germany. The company announced a productivity offensive in June, aimed at getting more work done for the same cost to lower average expenses. The management sees a 38-hour week as a possibility, currently there are 35 work hours. Cutbacks may also include special payments like Christmas and vacation money. Union representatives and IG Metall strongly oppose these cuts. Without agreement, the management threatens to close a vehicle plant and a components factory in Germany. The new corporate agreement is set to take effect from January 1, 2027, allowing managers to set up to four days of presence for full-time employees without reason. Four days are expected to become the standard. The new regulation was negotiated between Mercedes and employee representatives. The negotiation group agreed to make mobile work more binding in a new corporate agreement. It still needs ratification by the union committees of the individual locations. Mercedes had previously canceled the current home office agreement, which expires at the end of March 2027. If individual locations do not agree with the proposal, employees would have to show up at work five days a week again. Internally, CEO Ola Källenius has even previously suggested abolishing mobile work entirely. Due to the canceled agreement, the scope of the union representatives' negotiations has been limited. The union representatives focused more on discussions about the 35-hour week. The union council declared that the unilateral cancellation of the existing agreement by the company could lead to no regulation on mobile work at all. \"We wanted to prevent that,\" the union council said. It is now hoped that the implementation will limit deterioration, even if it means less flexibility for work-life balance. Four days of presence as the standard is opposed by the union council. It depends on the implementation in the teams: \"The existing leeways must be responsibly used.\" Mercedes employs over 164,000 employees worldwide, with around 108,000 in Germany. The number of office workers in Germany is estimated at around 38,000. Managers have been required to be in the office five days a week since early last year. Seeger believes the quality of collaboration has improved significantly, simply because they see each other more and have spontaneous meetings.",
  "summary": "Der Dax-Konzern erwartet eine höhere Produktivität durch mehr Anwesenheit. Mercedes-Chef Ola Källenius wäre am liebsten noch einen Schritt weiter gegangen.",
  "key_points": [
    "Current corporate agreement from 2016 allowed up to five days of home office.",
    "Union representatives strongly oppose cuts to special payments like Christmas and vacation money."
  ],
  "editors_take": "The new office attendance policy at Mercedes-Benz marks a shift towards prioritizing in-person collaboration, reflecting management's concerns that remote work has hindered teamwork and contributed to declining profits and sales.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}