The short answer is ’yes’.

Many employers are unsure as to what their responsibilities are to a member of staff working from home. Equally, many home-workers fail to appreciate the health and safety benefits that a structured assessment of their working environment will deliver.

According to Quittance Personal Injury Director Chris Salmon, “Lack of awareness of a firm’s liability for the health and safety of home-workers is common.  It is not unheard of for a home-working employee to make a work accident compensation claim against their employer for an injury that was caused by a factor in the home that the employer knew nothing about.”

“Many companies are caught out because home-working often evolves in an informal fashion. Initially an employee may work from home after hours or to catch up with a project. As trust builds between the employee and their manager, and the benefits of home working become clear, the arrangement becomes more permanent. The employee could be working from home some, or all, of the time.”

A gradual transition can often mean that no formal decision to recognise the employee as a home-worker is taken, and no one considers the business’s new legal obligations.

Other staff may have worked from home from the first day of their employment. This separation can have a psychological effect on both parties such that neither the employer nor employee recognises that the worker’s home is, legally, now their workplace.

Employees can request flexible working

Since June 30 2014, any employee who has worked for one employer for over 26 weeks actually has the right to request to work flexibly.  This can mean flexible working hours but may also mean working from home.

If an employee works from home on anything other than an incidental basis, the employer's ‘duty of care’ is essentially the same for home-workers as it is for those working in the employer's premises.

According to ACAS, anyone working entirely from home, or splitting their time between their home and the office, is considered a home-worker.  Even employees working ‘occasionally’ from home are considered home-workers.  The line between ‘incidental’ and ‘occasional’ is blurred, so employers would be best advised to be cautious and consider any employee who works from home with any degree of regularity as a home-worker.

What is an employer’s responsibility to a home worker?

An employer’s responsibility to a home-worker is very similar to that of a ‘regular’ employee working on company premises. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, 1999 require an employer to make a ‘suitable and sufficient assessment’ of:

• Risks to the employee’s health and safety
• Risks to others as a result of the employee’s work
• The identification and implementation of reasonably-practical preventative and protective measures
• The provision of health and safety training and information
• Emergency procedures where necessary
• Monitoring of an employee’s health, as appropriate, where risks have been identified.

In practice, this means that the employer should attend the employee's home with them and carry out a full risk assessment. The assessment should be conducted in the same way as it would be in the office. The proposed home-worker’s workstation along with the ventilation, temperature and lighting should be considered.

A report should be produced, after which it may fall on the employee to rectify any issues identified by the assessment.  The employer is responsible for any equipment it supplies although the employer must inform the employee if the equipment becomes unsuitable.

Once the home working environment is approved, the employee must assume responsibility for maintaining a safe environment.  If the environment becomes unsafe or unsuitable the employee must inform the employer at which point the employer must investigate and resolve the issue.  If the issue cannot be resolved then the employer should not allow the person to continue working from home.

An employee, or indeed an employer, may be concerned that a home risk assessment could breach an employee’s rights. As described above, however, it is likely to be a breach of an employee’s rights not to carry out a suitable assessment.

Ongoing home working safety

Many home workers use computers to carry out their work and it is likely to be the case that specific legislation including the Display Screen Equipment Regulations apply. The Regulations cover equipment including PC monitors, or ‘visual display units’ (VDUs) and require employers to risk assess the worker’s home workstation. Where a health risk is identified, such as the risk of eye strain for a regular computer user, an employer must make provision for eyesight checks and glasses where necessary.

At risk staff should also be provided with training such as stretches to reduce the chance of work-related upper limb disorders from developing. The employer may also need to provide suitable equipment, such as to improve a computer worker’s posture, where specific risks are identified.

Employers have a duty to consult with legal and safety representatives and to carry out appropriately detailed, regular assessments. Performing this duty helps to ensure that the employer’s legal obligations are fulfilled and, more importantly, to ensure that staff are able to work safely, regardless of where they are based.