Sounds interesting; no traffic jams, no transport costs, and you can relax is a familiar environment. But like all good ideas, there are some issues that have to be dealt with.
Conditions
Working at home can be a short term or permanent arrangement. The conditions of employment remain unchanged. The number of days working from home can vary. However, the employee’s duties and reporting requirements need to be suitable.
Equipment
The employer and employee need to consider such issues about:
• Who owns any equipment required and how maintenance is to be scheduled;
• Insure against theft or damage;
• Ensure that employee understands that employer-owned equipment is used for work related activities only and remains the property of the employer;
• Establish notification processes for equipment performance, operation or loss;
• Establish proportion of employee owned equipment to be costed to the employer, where appropriate. This may include maintenance, replacement of consumables, repair and insurance.
Confidentiality and Security
Accessing employer’s equipment and data requires consideration of security precautions. Particular care needs to be taken with the confidential information of clients and the employer.
• Employees working from home should have a dedicated work computer and not use a computer shared by other household members.
• Employers must set standards for desktop, laptop and mobile firewalls on all devices used by the employee.
• Install tracking software on any equipment of the employer to expedite recovery if equipment is lost or stolen.
• Give employees training on security and data management for off-site locations.
One situation we had was with a brand manager working from home. Her husband was also a marketing professional.
After a change in job, our client’s employee’s husband took on the role of her fiercest competitor’s role as brand manager. Our client was gravely concerned. Passing of pricing information could result in jail time for her and her superiors. Strong privacy and confidentiality procedures were needed if she was to work from home.
Work Health and Safety
All WHS policies relevant to the employee’s usual place of work apply, as far as practical, in the designated home office.
For further information go to the WorkCover website at www.workcover.nsw.gov.au
Worker’s compensation
Workers compensation arrangements apply to all injuries arising out of or in the course of employment, regardless of their work location.
For instance, an employee was working from home and at lunch decided to make a jam sandwich for her four year old son.
In attempting to open a can of jam, she cut a finger. This was treated as a worker’s compensation claim that her employer had to pay. It was an injury that occurred while at work; lunch being an ordinary part of a working day.
Just because she was in her own home was not relevant as the employer and her had agreed to have her home as her place of work, even if only for that day.
Etienne Lawyers checklist of issues for work from home arrangements
We have a guide that outlines some of the issues to be considered in introducing work from home arrangements. Work agreements between an employer and employee must be clearly document the arrangements agreed to, including hours of work and workplace safety and accessibility.
A workplace assessment of the home must be undertaken to identify work, health and safety hazards, and how to address them.
This assessment should only be done by an appropriately trained person and be limited to that part of the home which is used as a workplace.
Employers must establish:
• Whether the duties are suitable for work from home.
• What, if any, equipment will be requires for an employee to safely work from home. For example, if: the desk, chair and computer Is suitable; other equipment or machine is required for work undertaken; and there is a first-aid kit available (NSW Regulations require that all places of work have a first-aid kit. A basic (type C) kit is sufficient for most home based work situations).
• That the proposed working environment is healthy and safe. For example, if: there is sufficient lighting; emergency exits from the work area are clear; there is a smoke detector and/or an earth leakage protection device installed; and power points are used safely.
• That the employee has the information and training necessary to work safely.
• Agreed hours of work, communications procedures between the staff and their colleagues and manager, clear performance requirements and methods of assessment.
• Proper and secure means for business information to be used and transmitted from the home.
Other considerations
Other issues for consideration include enterprise agreement or industrial award provisions, tax, mortgage and/or lease arrangements, and local government approvals.
Work from Home Policy and Agreement
For an employee to work from home on a permanent or semi-permanent basis, employers need to have a documented Work From Home Policy that deals with all of the issues discussed above and for the employer and employee to enter into an agreement so that each knows the duties, responsibilities and obligations of each other when an employee is working from home. When you need to establish this contact Etienne Lawyers on 02 88452400
