Working from home… not all it’s cracked up to be?
26 June 2020
VIRUS SNIPETS
In the wake of COVID-19, vast numbers of the working population have suddenly found themselves being required to work from home. The lockdown was imposed, literally overnight and without warning or time to even take some supplies from the office. Businesses across the country were closed as all those performing so-called non-essential work were heavily discouraged from venturing beyond their front doors.
The Chinese proverb ‘be careful what you wish you’, seems aptly fitting as the ability to work from home has been far from a dream scenario for employees and employers alike. Many have experienced frustration as their ability to properly perform their jobs has been hampered by poor IT and internet provision, lack of appropriate working space in the home and an inability to access information that in a normal office environment, would be readily available.
The official advice on the Gov.UK website regarding COVID-19 working arrangements[1] is that employers should take all reasonable steps to help their employees work from home by:
Discussing home work arrangements
Ensuring they have the right equipment, for example remote access to work systems
Including them in all necessary communications
Looking after their physical and mental wellbeing and ensuring they do not feel isolated
Clearly much of this advice is impractical, at least in the short term. Anecdotally even many of the government’s own departments and institutions (including even the NHS) have failed to provide their employees with the right equipment and remote access to work systems, meaning that they are not able to fully provide their services.
It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the move to homeworking has been driven by policy and public opinion rather than by law. The consequence, and focus of this series of notes, is that all existing employment laws, regulations and obligations remain unaltered and must continue to be observed in the new context of working from home.
Employers have as much of a duty of care to their employees when they are working from home as they do when they are in the office. By law, employers are responsible for the health and safety of all employees, including those working from home[2]. For example, health and safety risk assessments should be conducted for every individual working from home in the same way as if office-based. However, with lockdown still in force[3] and the notion that working from home is temporary, it is unlikely that employers have been able to carry these out. Equally employees are likely to have been prepared to tolerate a degree of short-term discomfort in the interests of assisting their employer’s business and preserving their own jobs.
With working from home looking likely to become the new normal for many, it is important that employers and employees alike start to address the issues surrounding homeworking and conduct a full evaluation of the implications both financial and humanitarian.
Businesses should adopt a cautionary approach when considering whether to make homeworking a permanent feature of their staffing arrangements and not focus too narrowly on the perceived cost savings from a reduction in office space requirements.
Payroll is one of the largest costs for any business and ensuring that you are getting the best out of your employees and keeping them motivated is vitally important. As homeworking arrangements must be by the mutual consent of both parties, extensive consultations with staff will be required.
We are planning a series of subsequent articles exploring the following topics in more detail and explaining the underlying law in each area:
Health and Safety
o Homeworking risk assessments
o Workstation set-up and display screen equipment
o Mental health and wellbeing
Contractual
o Employment contracts and variations to contracts
o Reimbursement and compensation
o Provision of IT and office equipment
Training and development
o New employees
o Promotion and recognition
o Company standards
Regulation
o Confidentiality and data protection policies
o Homeworking policies
o Insurance
Almost no one will have been sorry to say goodbye to the daily commute, allowing precious time to be re-claimed for oneself, but the novelty has by now for many, worn off and the reality is that a move to working from home is not as straightforward as it seems.
[[1] Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport. Support for business and self-employed people during coronavirua: Working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19). Gov.UK. Web. 11.05.2020. 15.06.2020. 23.06.20202. http://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/5-steps-to-working-safely
[2] http://www.acas.org.uk/working-from-home
[3] The lockdown was imposed by Statutory Instrument on 26 March 2020 and has not been revoked. Subsequent government announcements of “relaxations” and “re-openings” are merely political announcements and do not have the status of laws.