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Monique Rom
Member - 2 posts
Our company has no home-based workers but several people are regularly working from home for an afternoon, 1 day or 2 days a week. As their facilities manager responsible for H&S, I believe that we are obliged to do at least an assessment of the work area at home as we could otherwise be liable. Can you please confirm or deny this is the case. I understand that there are substantially more rigorous requirements for home-based workers which would not apply in our case... or do they?
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Philip Jeffs
Member - 300 posts
Monique,
I've just undertaken a series of these for our company. We have first set up a homeworking policy which includes an authorisation process, and then identified those employees who are authorised to work from home.
I then did the home assesments for those people. The company policy (on our Intranet) says that anyone without prior authorisation does not have the company's agreement to work at home at any time, and as such we will not assess their home for H&S as we do not recognise it as being 'a place of work'.
Hope this helps. If you need any further advice email me on philip.jeffs@atpi.com to free up this board for other replies you may get.
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Monique Rom
Member - 2 posts
The authorisation process is very similar in our company. My question was more specifically concerning whether or not we are obliged to do these assessments when people are not classed as home-based workers. I feel it is good practice but are we actually by law required to perform the home assessment in these cases.
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Smita Jamdar - Martineau Solicitors
Online advisor - 17 posts
Dear Monique
Thank you for you enquiry on employees working at home. I have set out my advice below.
1. Home workers
There is obviously a need for sensitivity when approaching the health and safety implications of the regulations as the company will be intruding to an extent into the employee's personal space. However, any area used for working at home must comply with the legal requirements which apply to workplaces. To assess whether these areas are compliant a suitable and sufficient risk assessment is required.
Employees working from home should be asked to complete an initial assessment to confirm that the equipment they are using is in satisfactory condition and that the working arrangements provide a compliant working environment. If the assessment highlights any difficulties, the need for remedial action should be assessed and implemented where appropriate.
Home workers should also be asked to declare who might be present other than themselves as the company has a general duty to ?others who may be affected by the work? e.g. the home worker?s family.
The assessment may be conducted by a safety professional, a manager or the individual concerned, but inexperienced staff must be led through the process. If the individual is required to complete the assessment consideration should be given as to general safety training.
The assessments should be recorded and updated if the work environment changes. If there are no changes an annual re-assessment should be sufficient.
Home workers will need to be aware of the company health and safety policies and who to contact if they have any concerns. Training provided to office workers should also be provided to the home workers.
I see from your enquiry that your company is involved in software development and if your employees use a computer at home, obviously the Display Screen Equipment Regulations will apply specific provisions if the employees habitually use a VDU for a significant part of their normal work.
Any equipment provided by the company should also be maintained by the company. The company will also need to comply with the requirement for routine inspection of Portable Appliances.
Kind regards
Smita
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