Employers legal considerations on supporting remote workers

Employers should provide necessary IT and broadband equipment and review employees working hours (flexibility around home schooling) and homeworking policies which outlines expectations on how employees will be supervised, how the employer and their managers will communicate with them, and how their output and performance will be reviewed and monitored. Employers are responsible for an employee’s health, safety and welfare, even when working from home.

Employers need to make sure that homeworkers continue to comply with the organisation’s health and safety policy and conduct risk assessments to review work activities carried out by those employees working from home. Salary and benefits should remain the same during a period of homeworking, although there may be changes to normal travel expenses and allowances if they are no longer required to travel to a designated work space.

Employers need to ensure that if employees are using their own computer they should still process company information in compliance with data protection and GDPR principles and legislation. Employers should remind employees about home security, passwords, sharing confidential information, etc.