Working From Home: Your Employer’s Responsibilities

Working from home doesn’t mean a total abandonment of your employer’s responsibility for your health and safety.

It’s a myth among many employees that being off-site while carrying out your duties means no need for employer duty of care.

But the actual legal obligations, which have been brought into focus during the working from home trend of recent years, are still applicable and important to know.

With renewed calls for staff to work from home – this time to reduce high business energy bills as opposed to Covid regulations – so the need for risk assessments and appropriate equipment, advice, and guidance for remote workers is heightened.

As an employer, what should you be doing for remote workers?

An employer has certain obligations in a health and safety capacity to ensure staff are considered. When formulating/amending a remote work risk assessment, the points to focus on include:

• Stress and poor mental health
• Using equipment, like computers and laptops, safely
• The working environment

Winns’ Serious and Technical Injury Claims Manager Naveen Sandhu said: “It is important to speak to employees about their arrangements, as working from home may not be suitable for everyone.

“For example, some people may not have an appropriate place to work or may prefer to come into the workplace for wellbeing, mental health or other reasons.

“This in turn can lead to health issues both physical and mental if not considered and assessed.

“It is important to keep a balanced and proportionate approach for home workers. In most cases, there is no need to visit the employees but steps need to be taken to make sure they have a healthy and safe environment to work in.”

How can you do this?

Employers should consider how to keep contact with remote staff, the type of work they will be doing, how it can be done safely, and if they need to put control measures in place.

Mitigating issues in these aspects isn’t easy to do but is possible with a robust health and safety policy that:

• Provides advice and guidance on their home working set-up
• Uses questionnaires or self-assessment tools to gather feedback to act upon
• Promotes regular staff engagement

In practice, using a remote workstation assessment scheme can help as it provides a detailed look at a home working set-up, identifying issues that may lead to injuries and more, potentially avoidable, time off work.

Can you report a home-working accident?

Not every incident in a person’s home will be reportable. An incident may be reportable under Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) if it occurred as a result of the work activity being done or the equipment provided by the company which is used to carry out your work.

If you have had an accident at home that caused injury, wasn’t your fault, and happened during the course of your work duties, contact the Employer’s Liability Team at Winns who specialise in these circumstances and can provide advice on your scenario.

This no-obligation chat will help deliver a clearer picture as to whether you have an eligible claim for compensation.

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