Health and Safety Documents for Home Based Employees

Being employed and working from home does not reduce your employer's responsibilities towards you, and it does not reduce your own entitlement to a safe working environment. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 applies to home based employees in the same way it applies to those working in an office. Your employer is legally required to ensure your home working environment is safe, assessed, and documented. || The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 apply to you as a home based employee who uses a screen as a significant part of your work. Your workstation - screen height, keyboard position, chair support, lighting - must be formally assessed. Most employers of home based staff have not done this. || An accident that occurs during working hours in your home working environment is a workplace accident. Without documentation showing that your environment has been assessed and managed, both you and your employer are in a significantly weaker position if a claim or dispute arises.

Home based employees often find themselves in a compliance gap. They are employees, so they expect their employer to manage health and safety. But they work from home, so their employer has not visited their working environment, assessed its risks, or provided any formal documentation. The result is a working environment that is technically the employer's responsibility but in practice nobody has addressed. || The practical risks are real and well documented. Musculoskeletal problems from poorly set up workstations, eye strain from inadequate lighting, fire risks from home office electrical equipment - these are the identified consequences of unassessed home working environments. Having documentation in place provides a baseline record of your working conditions. || CompliantDocs generates five completed documents for your home working environment. Specific to your setup. Delivered in minutes.