However other grounds such as the impact on quality of work, the impact on performance or the burden of additional costs may be relevant considerations. Part 6AA sets out an exhaustive list of grounds for refusing a flexible working request, but notably health and safety is not one of them.
If an employee is seeking to perform some of their work remotely on a customary basis, it would be best practice for the employee to make a formal flexible working request and for this to be considered by the employer in accordance with the requirements in Part 6AA ERA. The definition of working arrangements includes the place of work. Section 69AA Employment Relations Act 2000 ( ERA), defines a “flexible working request" as a written request to vary the terms and conditions relating to the employee's working arrangements.
Practical recommendations for establishing a permanent flexible-working arrangement However there are still a number of steps an employer can take to minimise the risk of harm to an employee working remotely, particularly if this is to be a frequent arrangement as opposed to ad hoc. There are presently no specific guidelines from WorkSafe regarding the scope of an employer's obligations to ensure that an employee's home workspace is compliant from a health and safety best practice perspective. The key thing to note is that the employer's duty to ensure the employer's safety is to the standard of “so far as is reasonably practicable", and clearly the level of control an employer can have over the health and safety of an employee who is working from the employer's premises is greater than the control the employer can have over an employee working from their home. What duties does the employer have in regards to protecting an employee's safety while they are working from home? Accordingly, any type of worker engaged by a PCBU who is working from home will be responsible for their own health and safety and will be required to comply with the PCBU's reasonable instructions including any policies and procedures. While the focus of this article is on an employer's duties to employees working from home, it is noted that the definition of worker in the HSWA includes contractors and volunteers. Therefore if an employee is customarily working from their home, this amounts to a workplace and in addition to the employee's own duty to ensure their personal health and safety, the employer still concurrently owes a duty in this regard. Workplace is defined very broadly in the HSWA as a place where work is being carried out, or is customarily carried out, for a business or undertaking, and includes any place where a worker goes, or is likely to be, while at work. Under the HSWA, an employer as a person conducting a business or undertaking ( PCBU) has a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers who work for the PCBU, while the workers are at work in the business or undertaking. Many employers have already begun utilising these arrangements to attract and retain staff and given the respective benefits arising from such arrangements, demand for remote working is likely to increase in the future. Improvements in technology mean that working from home is more manageable than ever before. Working from home - health and safety considerationsįor many reasons, employees are increasingly seeking flexibility in their working arrangements not only in respect of their hours and days of work, but also in the ability to perform their work remotely.
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