Health and Safety Whilst Working from Home
Published / Last Updated on 10/12/2021
As the government again asks all those who can work from home to do so, what triggered our interest this week was a Federal Social Court ruling in Germany where a man was working from home and as he made is first ‘commute’ of the day from his bedroom down some spiral steps to his workspace, he slipped and broke his back. The Federal Court ruled that he was able to claim on his Statutory Accident at Work Insurance.
Whilst this does not set a precedent in the UK, health and safety whilst working at home should be in the minds of both employers and employees. You can be sure that people will have accidents whilst working from home and ‘ambulance chasers’ and claims management firms will pick up on this new source of revenue.
We are not legal advisers, but we have taken some legal advice:
Firstly, you need to classify whether the employee is:
- Temporarily working from home e.g., on government advice: We suggest both employer and employee have a joint responsibility to check that their temporary workspace is safe regarding seating, desk height and business equipment has been safety tested.
- Permanently work from home: Whilst both employer and employee should assess safety, we suggest it is the duty of the employer to complete a full health and safety risk assessment.
We suggest as part of any risk assessment, employers include:
- PAT (portable appliance testing) of all electrical equipment being used in connection with work.
- Assess wires and trip hazards
- Workspace and station: Ensure comfortable and safe working in terms of posture, desk position and height, seating, screen monitor distance and height, ergonomics of space and positioning of equipment, telephone, cameras, PCs, printers and scanners etc.
- Adequate lighting and ventilation.
- Fire safety, fire exit, fire drill, smoke alarms.
- Heating and if gas heated, carbon monoxide monitoring.
- Regular contact by telephone and/or video link for mental well being given it can be lonely working in isolation.
We know this all may seem ‘above and beyond’ but the welfare of both employees and the business itself is paramount.
