The aim of the new law will be to ensure that employees have the opportunity to work from home whenever possible, and also to regulate work in home office mode, for example by limiting working hours. The law will seek to strengthen employees' rights and draw clearer boundaries between work and personal life that many countries face.
France, for instance, relies on a 2017 law, limiting the extent to which employees are required to answer telephone calls and e-mails outside the office. Spain, in turn, has approved decrees that make employers responsible for labour costs.
Meanwhile Germany, which had previously hampered the adoption of flexible work, has changed course in recent months. This is part of a broader rethinking of Germany's economic approach, which includes abandoning the country's long-term commitment to a balanced budget, nicknamed "schwarze null", and extending the exchange rate.
The draft of the new law will still have to go through parliament and can expect only lukewarm support from coalition partners. Critics argue the law could weaken workers' ability to engage in collective bargaining and also encourage companies to award contracts abroad to countries with lower labour standards. Some companies want to move to performance-based pay instead of paying employees for hours worked.
Heil said the law would protect collective bargaining rights but he has yet to offer details. He acknowledged that not all jobs would benefit from the legislation and that gender differences remained a challenge.
"There is a cliché which, unfortunately, is often the case that men go to their home office and shut the door, while women working from home are taking care of children at the same time," he said.
However, he said his plan could not be blamed for the fact that some companies were already moving jobs to cheaper countries, or for job losses, when positions generally were becoming obsolete due to automation and technological change.
Berlin hopes also to see a positive impact of a law passed this spring, which will offer grants to companies that reduce size if they provide training to help workers make the transition to new jobs.
Heil added that Germany would use the remainder of its EU presidency, which runs until the end of this year, to encourage other member states to adopt a similar policy. It also intends to put pressure on Brussels to enforce rules that make companies more accountable for the well-being of workers in the gig economy. At the same time, Heil acknowledged that negotiations on the European minimum wage were unlikely to be completed during the German presidency.
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