Homeworking and employer’s obligations
As we move out of lockdown into ‘the new normal’, many employers are going to be faced with the prospect of staff working from home more regularly, if not permanently. For those employers who, prior to Covid, had no provision in place for staff to work from home, it may come as quite a surprise to learn that it is not as simple as giving employees a laptop and telling them to get on with it.
All employers have a duty of care to provide their staff with a safe working environment, even if this is their home address. But what should the conscientious employer do to ensure that their legal obligations are met with regard to home workers who might be out of sight and out of mind?
ACAS has recently released guidance for employers on the subject of remote working, but here are some top tips to get you started:
- Ensure the employee has the right equipment to do job. This might be anything from computer facilities to tables, chairs and even a safe for confidential documents.
- Conduct a risk assessment of the employee’s workspace just as you would if they were in the office. Make any reasonable adjustments that may be required.
- Consider the employee’s wellbeing and how you intend to keep them integrated within the organisation despite their isolation from the rest of the workforce.
- Provide or pay for an adequate wifi connection to the employee’s house.
- Ensure that there are sufficient safeguards in place to comply with data protection legislation. For example, who will have access to the employee’s workspace? Are IT facilities password protected? Can confidential documents be disposed of appropriately?
- Check that the employee is permitted to use their home as a workplace by their mortgage provider.
- Amend the employee’s contract to reflect the fact that they are a home worker and deal with issues such as working hours and any requirements to visit the office.
- Put in place a formal homeworking policy to set out what is expected of home workers and what the employer will do to support them.
- Make sure that there is appropriate insurance in place to cover employees working from home.
If you have any further questions about employee homeworking, please email or call our Employment Law team today on 0113 207 0000.
Partner and Head of Employment
Employment Law
PKelly@LawBlacks.com
0113 227 9249
@PaulLawBlacks
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Paul Kelly
