Between
Technische Universität Braunschweig
represented by the President
and the
Staff Council of Technische Universität Braunschweig
represented by the Chairperson
the following TU Braunschweig/Staff Council Agreement, hereinafter also referred to as staff council agreement, is concluded in accordance with § 78 NPersVG (Niedersächsisches Personalvertretungsgesetz [Lower Saxony Staff Representation Act]) in conjunction with the agreement pursuant to § 81 NPersVG on telecommuting and remote working in the Lower Saxony state administration of May 18, 2021:
With remote working, TU Braunschweig and the staff council want to enable a greater flexibility in working hours and locations, offer additional options for organizing work, and thus make a significant contribution to work arrangements and a leadership culture that are geared toward work-life balance. In particular, the aim is to help employees balance their professional or academic careers with family life and to increase the attractiveness of TU Braunschweig as an employer when it comes to recruiting young talent and new staff. Participation in remote working supports the idea of a working culture based on trust and appreciation at TU Braunschweig.
The implementation of remote working is a reflection of the experiences and findings gained during the COVID-19 constraints and the flexible working project carried out at TU Braunschweig until June 30, 2022.
The “Agreement pursuant to § 81 NPersVG on telecommuting and remote working in the Lower Saxony state administration” is hereby supplemented in the area of remote working specifically for the situation at TU Braunschweig. Remote working requires responsible behavior on the part of supervisors and employees and is a suitable tool for ensuring the functionality and service quality of TU Braunschweig on the one hand, and for safeguarding the interests of employees in a form of work that is flexibly adapted to their respective life circumstances on the other, without this leading to an additional burden on employees.
Clear agreements create trust in the work to be performed outside the office, serve the overarching purpose of ensuring that official duties are performed effectively and efficiently at all times, and at the same time prevent the boundaries between professional and private life from becoming blurred.
The implementation of remote working is intended to achieve the following objectives:
This staff council agreement applies to all civil servants and tariff employees of TU Braunschweig. In accordance with No. 2 (2) of the “Agreement pursuant to § 81 NPersVG on telecommuting and remote working in the Lower Saxony state administration,” employees in training (vocational trainees, student assistants, and interns) are generally excluded from the scope of this staff council agreement. If employees undergoing training are to be included in exceptional cases, this requires a justified request, an individual decision by the Staff Council with the involvement of the Jugend- und Auszubildendenvertretung (JAV) [youth and trainee representation], and final approval by the university management.
The legal framework for remote work at TU Braunschweig is based in particular on the following legal provisions, which have to be observed in their current version when participating in remote work: Arbeitsschutzgesetz (ArbSchG) [Occupational Safety and Health Act], Arbeitszeitgesetz (ArbZG) [Working Time Act], Niedersächsisches Beamtengesetz (NBG) [Lower Saxony Civil Servants‘ Act], Niedersächsisches Gleichbeberechtigungsgesetz (NGG) [Lower Saxony Equality Act], Niedersächsisches Personalvertretungsgesetz (NPersVG) [Lower Saxony Staff Representation Act], Niedersächsisches Datenschutzgesetz (NDSG) [Lower Saxony Data Protection Act], Tarifvertrag für den öffentlichen Dienst der Länder (TV-L) [Collective Bargaining Agreement for the Public Service of the States], Neuntes Sozialgesetzbuch (SGB IX) [Ninth Social Code].
This means that all legal provisions governing the employment relationship of employees, in their currently applicable versions, also apply to remote work. The status of employees remains unchanged. Particular attention has to be paid to applicable occupational health and safety regulations and compliance with the staff council agreements concluded on working time regulations.
(1) Remote work refers to occasional work activities that are performed outside the premises of TU Braunschweig in consultation with the supervisor using IT equipment belonging to TU Braunschweig. Remote work can be performed at a home workplace or at another location.
(2) Employees are free to choose their alternative place of work or duty station, but it has to be suitable for performing their work or duties in accordance with their obligations and in compliance with the provisions of this staff council agreement, occupational health and safety regulations, as well as IT security and data protection requirements.
(3) Exclusively remote working without any presence at the university is generally not permitted.
(4) Under the experimental clause, the proportion of individual regular weekly working time spent working remotely may amount to 40% in a calendar half-year. The time allocations can generally be distributed flexibly in consultation with the supervisor, i.e., remote work can be done on an hourly or full-day basis. Time allowances that have not been used in one calendar half-year cannot be carried over to the following calendar half-year.
(5) In urgent personal and/or family situations, e.g., caring for relatives or a sick child, remote working may be permitted on an exceptional basis for up to 10 consecutive working days, depending on the circumstances or tasks involved, but not on a permanent or regular basis.
(6) Remote work and telecommuting can be combined. In the case of a combination of approved telecommuting and remote work, the total time spent away from the workplace may not exceed 60% of the calendar half-year. Employees are responsible for providing proof of this. The provisions of paragraphs (4) and (5) do also apply in principle to a combination of remote work and telecommuting.
(7) The upper limit specified in paragraphs (4) and (6) may be exceeded in individual cases for severely disabled employees and employees of equivalent status, within the framework of workplace reintegration, and in urgent personal and/or family situations, e.g., when providing care for relatives or in the event of a child's illness.
(8) Remote work from abroad is not permissible.
(9) Remote work is not home-based work within the meaning of the Home-Based Workers Act, nor is it telework within the meaning of the Workplace Ordinance. On-call duty and business trips are not considered remote work within the meaning of this agreement.
(1) Participation in remote work is voluntary for employees and requires a request from the employee. This service agreement does not establish a legal right to remote work.
(2) All TU Braunschweig regulations also apply unchanged to remote work, unless expressly specified otherwise in this agreement.
(3) Employees may not suffer any professional disadvantages as a result of performing remote work. This applies in particular to qualification and career development (e.g., promotions, job and status changes). The integration of remote workers into the service operation, in particular their participation in staff meetings, etc., as well as the internal flow of information necessary for work purposes, has to be ensured by both supervisors (managers) and employees and guaranteed by appropriate arrangements.
(4) Overtime has to be approved in advance in accordance with regulations and by the responsible authority. Remote work on Sundays and public holidays, during vacations, and as night work is not permitted. The relevant civil servants’, collective bargaining, and labor law provisions apply to vacation, sick leave, and other reasons for absence from work.
(5) When working remotely, care should be taken to ensure that the workplace is designed in a way that promotes good health.
(6) Remote working is enabled to the extent that remote workstation IT equipment is available and provided by the institution. In the course of IT replacement purchases, devices suitable for remote working should be procured wherever possible, in accordance with the recommendation of the IT User Board.
(7) Employees have to ensure that they can be contacted while working remotely (in particular by forwarding their telephone calls, checking their emails, and regularly emptying their work mailbox). Details of mutual availability are to be agreed between employees and supervisors.
(8) Pre-planned or plannable work appointments or events that require the presence of employees always take precedence. In the event of important work-related requirements, employees have to be present at the workplace at the request of their supervisor and may only refuse to do so if they have a valid reason.
(9) Remote work must not impose an additional burden on other employees in the institution.
(10) While working remotely, participation in university life and social interaction with co-workers has to be ensured. Supervisors in particular are called upon to contribute to this.
Participation in remote work requires that
a) the activity is suitable for this. In principle, activities are suitable that can be carried out independently, without impairing the work process and with limited contact to the organizational unit at an alternative location.
b) the applicant is suitable for this. In principle, persons who proactively maintain contact with their institution, supervisors, and co-workers, independently plan and implement the timely completion of tasks, and perform the required work reliably and on time are suitable.
c) there are no conflicts with work-related issues from the supervisor’s perspective. Work operations have to remain guaranteed.
d) employees discuss the tasks to be performed when working remotely with their supervisors so that mutual expectations are clearly communicated.
e) employees receive instruction on occupational health and safety (§ 12 ArbSchG) before commencing remote work.
(1) Employees have to apply to their supervisor in writing to participate in remote work using the approval form published on the Information Portal.
(2) The suitability of the areas of responsibility and the workplace, as well as compliance with data protection and information security requirements, have to be reviewed by the responsible supervisor in a favorable manner in accordance with the objectives (§ 1).
(3) If remote work is approved, the supervisor will conclude a written agreement with the employee regarding the performance of remote work for a limited period of time.
(4) The granting of remote work has to be agreed individually between employees and the responsible supervisors and may not exceed a maximum of 18 months, at the latest until the conclusion of a new 81 agreement by the Lower Saxony state administration.
(5) Employees will receive a copy of the approved request from their supervisors. After the last month of the approved period has expired, the approvals have to be kept together with the working time records for a period of at least two years as evidence for auditing purposes by internal or external bodies in the institutions.
(6) If the request is denied, the supervisor will forward the request to the personnel department, providing a written explanation of with comprehensible reasons for the denial. The personnel department will review the request and the supervisor's statement. The staff council is involved by the personnel department before an employee's application for remote work is to be rejected. If the applicant is severely disabled or equivalent, the personnel department consults the representative for severely disabled employees before a planned rejection. If, after the co-determination procedure has been carried out, the personnel department maintains its rejection, it will notify the employee in writing, stating the reasons.
(7) In the event of a significant change in the scope of activities or a change of supervisor, a new request generally has to be submitted and a new permit obtained.
(1) The working time to be worked is the individual working time agreed in the employment contract or under civil servants’ law. The provisions of the staff council agreements on working time at TU Braunschweig in their currently valid version apply.
(2) The division of working hours between the official workplace and the alternative workplace will be agreed individually between employees and the responsible supervisor.
(3) Working hours will be recorded in a timesheet in accordance with the regulations applicable in the respective institution.
(4) Commuting time between the workplace and an alternative place of work is not considered work-related and is not counted as working time.
(5) In the event of technical malfunction at the alternative work location, employees immediately have to report the malfunction to the responsible supervisors or, in their absence, to their deputies, and agree on how to proceed. If the malfunction means that no work can be performed at the alternative work location, the supervisors may demand that the employees return to their workplace at TU Braunschweig within a reasonable period of time.
(6) In justified exceptional cases (e.g., absence of co-workers due to illness), employees have to respond flexibly, i.e., if necessary, relocate their remote working hours at short notice in order to perform tasks on the premises of TU Braunschweig if these tasks require their presence. In official emergency situations, the order to appear as quickly as possible has to be based on the specific circumstances and exercised at reasonable discretion.
(7) For all employees who otherwise participate in time recording, time recording outside the official workplace will be carried out manually, provided that there is no possibility of technical time recording. In this case, the start and end of working hours and any breaks taken have to be recorded in all cases.
(1) The necessary work equipment and consumables for remote working, such as writing instruments or laptops, are generally provided by the respective institution after consultation with the supervisor. The use of private IT devices cannot be mandated and is only possible in exceptional cases with the approval of the Gauß IT Zentrum.
(2) Employees will be provided with the necessary information and communication devices to access work-related data (including network storage, email, and electronic files). The technical connection is established via VPN access, which employees are required to use. The security requirements must be strictly observed. The security regulations of TU Braunschweig also apply to the private use of the technical work equipment provided.
(3) In accordance with Section 5.6 (2) of the “Agreement pursuant to § 81 NPersVG on telecommuting and remote working in the Lower Saxony state administration,” employees will provide suitable Internet access at their own expense. The same applies to a telephone connection, unless it is provided for business purposes for other reasons (e.g., cell phones provided by TU Braunschweig). Rent, heating, electricity, and other ancillary costs, as well as ongoing telecommunications costs, are not reimbursed.
(1) Employees may terminate their participation in remote work at any time without giving reasons. The approval granted will then expire.
(2) Approval for remote work may be revoked in writing for good cause with reasonable notice (usually 14 days). The staff council, the equal opportunities officer, and, if applicable, the representation for persons with disabilities will be consulted.
(1) Employees have to ensure compliance with data protection and information security regulations. These regulations also apply without restriction to work carried out at remote locations.
(2) Particular attention has to be paid to data protection and information security vis-à-vis third parties, including family members and other persons living in the household, when working outside the regular workplace. Confidential data and information, such as personal and work-related data as well as operational secrets and business secrets, have to be protected by employees in such a way that third parties cannot view or access them.
(3) Public places such as train compartments, cafes, and public parks are only suitable for working with confidential data and information to a limited extent. Personal data and data subject to secrecy may not be processed in these locations.
(1) Accidents at work or while on duty during remote work, as well as accidents on the way to and from work, are subject to the statutory accident prevention regulations.
(2) In the event of damage, loss, or theft of the work equipment provided, including the loss of data or files, the respective statutory, collective agreement, and civil servants’ regulations will apply. Employees will only be liable for damages in the event of intentional or grossly negligent breach of their duties.
(3) Employees are advised to ensure that they have adequate liability or property insurance coverage when participating in remote work.
Before commencing remote work, employees and their supervisors will be informed about this form of work in an appropriate manner. Even after starting remote work, training courses will be offered on the topics of leadership and cooperation, self-organization, special features of occupational health and safety, information security, and data protection, as well as the assessment of remote workers, and participation in these courses is strongly recommended.
The regulations governing remote working at TU Braunschweig are to be reviewed regularly. If necessary, specific topics are to be discussed and proposals for future development drawn up.
Should one or more provisions of this staff council agreement be invalid, the remaining provisions will remain in force. The negotiating parties will immediately agree on a date to renegotiate the invalid passage.
(1) This staff council agreement will enter into force on July 1, 2024. It will be limited in time until the conclusion of negotiations on the existing “Agreement pursuant to § 81 NPersVG on telecommuting and remote working in the Lower Saxony state administration.”
(2) This staff council agreement may be supplemented and amended at any time by mutual agreement. Supplements and amendments have to be made in writing.
(3) The agreement may be terminated with four months' notice to the end of the year, at the earliest on December 31, 2025.
The President
of Technische Universität Braunschweig
Staff Council
of Technische Universität Braunschweig
The Chairperson
Antrags- und Genehmigungsformular
zur Durchführung von mobiler Arbeit (Stand 08/2025)