One principle is that no work concerns stand in the way of you working remotely. This relates both to whether it is possible to work remotely and to the scope of the intended remote work. Ideally, this should be assessed by the employee and supervisor together. The supervisor makes the final decision. The Flex Employment Agreement does, however, define a process for resolving conflicts that involves all necessary participants (see “Conflict Resolution”).

The role of supervisor essentially remains unchanged in this case. The functional working hours are set by the unit (see “Working hours regulations”). As before, deadlines, arrangements or the distribution of work over the day should be coordinated with supervisors as necessary – as was probably the case in your everyday work up to now (same as previous Glaz Employment Agreement).

The aim of the new employment agreement is not for supervisors to decide when work begins (above all, in terms of functional working hours). Of course, there may be times when it makes sense to adjust your individual working hours to work requirements. This has also been the practice so far with the Glaz Employment Agreement.

In any case, interruptions in working time should be coordinated with your supervisor and you should at least notify them in advance.

The same regulations from the Flex Employment Agreement generally apply to civil servants. However, a limitation up to 7:30 p.m. currently applies to their working hours. This corresponds with the attendance framework set out in Section 4 of Berlin’s Working Time Regulations (Arbeitszeitverordnung, AZVO) that regulate the regular weekly working hours of civil servants. In addition, Section 1 of the Working Time Regulations sets the weekly working hours of full-time civil servants at 40 hours, i.e., 8 hours/day on average.

According to the regulations on the working time range set out in the Flex Employment Agreement, all staff members covered by that agreement may start work as early as 6:00 a.m.

For certain groups at Freie Universität Berlin the nature of their work responsibilities makes it impossible or overly complicated to implement more flexible hours or places of work. Therefore, exceptions are given in the Flex Employment Agreement for the following groups: student employees as per TV Stud III – KAV, employees who work shifts, are assigned to rosters or work fixed working hours, and teaching staff at the Studienkolleg. 

The main groups to whom the exceptions for remote work apply are: trainees, interns, and employees who need to be on site to perform their tasks.

Furthermore, these exception provisions allow student staff members as per TV Stud III – KAV to work remotely as long as this does not conflict with their work duties.