Working from home - health & safety considerations
July 2020
VIRUS SNIPETS Working from home… Health and Safety
As we highlighted last time, for any business considering making the current arrangements for emergency working from home a permanent part of their business set-up, there are many considerations for both employers and employees.
Whilst working from home (where feasible) is the current normal, The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) guidance on home working states that “only suitable people should be offered the choice of regular remote home working”[1]. Suitability is not limited merely to the personality of the individual or their specific role but also to their home working set-up[2].
Homeworking Risk Assessments
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, businesses are responsible for the health, safety and welfare of their employees so far as is reasonably practicable and is equally applicable to homeworkers as it is to office-based workers.
As the current situation for homeworking is viewed as a temporary one, The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has waived some of the normal health and safety requirements. For example, in normal circumstances, a physical inspection of the home workstation and a risk assessment is required for each individual who is working from home. In addition, they have also dispensed with the usual requirement for a specific display screen equipment (DSE) risk assessment stating that there “is no increased risk from DSE work for those working at home temporarily” which raises some interesting questions in itself.
Despite the current dispensations, employers are not absolved of their health and safety responsibilities at this time.
All employers should ask their employees to complete a questionnaire assessing their current home workstation and should, during the course of regular contact between employer and employee, monitor the situation and be particularly mindful that as this period of homeworking continues and becomes less temporary, changes may need to be implemented especially where an employee reports any of the following:
Aches, pains or discomfort related to their temporary DSE arrangements
Adverse effects of working in isolation, on remote IT systems
Working longer hours without adequate rest and recovery breaks
If businesses decide to make current working from home arrangements permanent, they will need to conduct, or guide employees through how to conduct, full workstation assessments and provide workers with appropriate equipment and advice on control measures.
Workstation set-up and display screen equipment
Home workstation set-ups are a bit of an elephant in the room. People Safe have published some guidance for employers and employees regarding the suitable set-up for a home workstation that some may find useful.
One of the key considerations of the home workstation is the available space, which must be sufficient to allow the employee to work comfortably; this is typically considered to be 11m2[3]. It was reported in 2018 that newbuild specifications in the UK were smaller than ever with the average house having only 68.3m2 of living space (not significantly more space than the combined area of both decks of a London bus). Flats have also been reduced in size, sometimes offering less than 30m2 of living space[4].
This highlights what many will suspect, that a large proportion of the workforce, especially younger urban professionals, do not have sufficient space at home for a permanent dedicated workstation, free of distractions, that is health and safety compliant.
The Safety and Health Practitioner’s website (SHP) references a 2019 seminar conducted by Clyde & Co entitled Effective Safety Leadership in the Workplace which highlighted that employers must provide extra care and support for homeworkers to avoid an increase in the number of reported musculoskeletal disorders[5].
While Clyde & Co was referring to regular homeworkers, it is a warning that should be taken seriously, even if working from home arrangements are temporary, when you consider that many individuals will currently be working in less than ergonomically desirable circumstances i.e. from kitchen tables, bedrooms and even the coffee table in the front room and without an ergonomically designed chair, it would be unsurprising if there was increase in musculoskeletal issues as a result of the current arrangements, even if they are only temporary ones.
There is uncertainty as to the responsibility for the provision of suitable equipment and furniture for working from home (a topic that we will explore in a subsequent article). Where homeworking has been imposed, as in the current circumstances, rather than been mutually agreed to, all businesses should seriously consider the conditions in which their employees are working in and how the long-term effects that may arise from these before deciding whether to make working from home a permanent arrangement.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Home workers can also be defined as lone workers; typically, the following types of workers are considered to be lone workers - night security, train drivers etc but there is a strong argument that anyone working from home is also a lone worker and should be treated as such when it comes to mental health and wellbeing.
Feelings of isolation are often described by lone workers who can find the lack of contact and interaction difficult. To help combat this, businesses are encouraged to:
Schedule regular check-ins – it may be most beneficial for these to take place using a video conferencing platform. When only 7% of communication is verbal, and to avoid mis-communication by the mis-reading of tone in written communications, a video call is likely to be most effective in combating feelings of isolation.
Provide regular company-wide updates regarding the organisation as a whole – this could be a daily or weekly newsletter.
Ensuring that employees have the name and number of a supervisor who can be easily contacted.
Many studies have been conducted into employee stress levels and regularly compare homeworkers and office-based workers’ stress levels. The World Economic Forum in 2019 highlighted a report from 2017 by the United Nations which found that 41% of remote workers reported high stress levels compared to just 25% of office-based workers.
The difficulties in providing effective management for remote teams should not be underestimated and it is important not forget that additional support may be required at all managerial levels.
In May 2020 the Healthy Work Company surveyed 648 people in the UK in an attempt to assess the state of the nation’s mental health. The results of their survey showed extreme variation with 24% reporting an improvement in their mental health during lockdown, 32% reported a decline in their mental health. While the survey conducted was very small, it should not be dismissed. Employers have a responsibility for the mental health of their employees as much as for their physical health.
Summary
Almost all of the current HSE concessions are founded in policy rather than law, meaning employers remain potentially vulnerable.
A raft of claim can be expected from disgruntled employees and former employees (if predictions of reductions in post-COVID employment levels come to pass).
Employers need to take action now to protect against this exposure.
Employer’s Liability Insurance may not cover homeworking.
[1] https://www.shponline.co.uk/lone-working/home-working/
[2] https://archive.acas.org.uk/media/3905/Homeworking—-a-guide-for-employers-and-employees/pdf/Homeworking-a-guide-for-employers-and-employees.pdf
[3] https://peoplesafe.co.uk/advice/working-from-home-legislation-and-health-safety-risks/
[4] https://www.which.co.uk/news/2018/04/shrinking-homes-the-average-british-house-20-smaller-than-in-1970s/
[5] https://www.shponline.co.uk/lone-working/home-working/