Half want teleworking several days a week

Roughly half of Europeans want to work from home at least several days a week, but a full two-thirds were not allowed to do so at all this year, an EU-wide survey found in a report published on Thursday.

Luxembourg has seen a flood of workers return to their companies' offices - causing major traffic problems - after a special tax deal allowing foreign workers to telework with neighbouring countries expired.

The findings come as cross-border workers are flocking back to the office in Luxembourg, clogging up roads and pushing public transport to the brink.

The Grand Duchy agreed with its three neighbours to waive extra taxes that cross-border workers would have incurred for working from their home countries during the pandemic, an agreement that ended last week.

While half of respondents worked from home permanently or occasionally during the first summer of the pandemic, that number dropped to just 30% in the spring of this year, according to the survey from EU agency Eurofound.

"The pandemic seems not to have triggered the expected and desired work-from-home revolution", Eurofound said.

The Grand Duchy ranked in the bottom-10 for teleworking among EU countries. Less than 20% of people who could permanently work at home did so, and under half of those who could partially telework chose to do so.

Teleworking is particularly attractive for younger workers. Over half of workers aged 18 to 44 preferred to work from home several times a week, Eurofound said. That number drops to 40% for those aged 60 or older.

Just one in five said their job was possible without ever coming to the office.

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