Overview
- Ricarda Lang urged a legal right to mobile working and home office where tasks allow it to ease higher costs for petrol and train tickets.
- She proposed targeted relief paid for by a windfall tax, a levy on companies’ exceptional crisis profits used to fund support for workers.
- Lang noted many jobs cannot be done remotely and said daily commuters should receive special help with rising travel costs.
- The International Energy Agency has recommended demand cuts such as more home working, lower speed limits, and greater use of public transport, and the EU energy commissioner backed those ideas.
- Germany’s economy minister Katherina Reiche countered that there are no oil supply shortages in Germany or Europe, casting doubt on the need for broad saving measures.