Working from home - what does the employer have to provide?

[Manchestermanchester]

Sadly I don’t have the option of working from home but I was wondering what legally the employer has to do? My colleagues have been given a Laptop computer but does the company have to legally do anything else?

I’m also asking as my work colleague had a broken had and was allowed/encouraged to work from home.

No they don't have to provide anything although laptop and phone might be typical. They should risk assess the working space though, but think that can be done by employee.

A laptop and that's about it. I've worked from home for various companies. Some provide everything, chairs, tables, screens, others nothing apart from a laptop

Nothing.

I work from home. They provided a screen, keyboard, mouse and cables etc. Offered to buy a laptop but obviously I would have had to return it had I left. I needed a new one so chose to buy my own that I use.

My BIL'S company has no local base so they equipped his spare room with full sized desk, chair, cupboard, paid for (or part of) broadband, etc

My company has a local office, I choose to WFH some days. They provided the laptop everything else was up to me. They did say I had to do a dse check, and if it wasn't suitable I couldn't WFH. We have a full sized office desk and chair for dh's self employment (he is usually out during my working hours) so it wasn't a problem.

@LIZS do you mean a work space assessment? We do that at our desks to make sure the headphones are at the right sound level and everything is in the right place. Really basic but it has to be done. I would imagine that an employer needs to do that for home based workers?

@WeAllHaveWings what’s a DSE check, is it this? www.hse.gov.uk/msd/dse/assessment.htm

If so, wow my workmate complained about his hand being sore and asked for a new soft touch keyboard for over a month before he lost it one day and I swapped with him (my suggestion as the boss is an idiot). But the same employee was of work with a scheduled hand operation and he was working from home after the operation. My boss only allowed him one day of work, he had to call to notify work of sickness.

*which doesn’t sound unreasonable it ideally you would expect your boss to say “ok you can have the week of but please keep me updated for further developments”. Hand was in a bandage and he had a general. Interesting as there was no one checking the working from home arrangements.

Yes but since much of the equipment will be employee's own opportunities to adjust are more limited so it is more of an assessment of what is available and any hazards. How many people can accommodate a whole workstation in addition to their own furniture and personal equipment. However there are also issues like gdpr which now apply for documents, IT security and emails for home based staff, so there should be policies to take that into account,

Your colleague has a desk in the office so your employer doesn't need to check out their work space at home as your colleague is "choosing" to work from home.

I've been in situations were I've had hot desks and because of this if I choose to work from home the work space has never been checked. On the other hand my sibling who is mandated to work from home has had his workspace checked and was supplied with desk, chair, keyboard and monitor.

The only thing your employer needs to ensure is they can prove your colleague understands GDPR and computer security plus uses a VPN to connect to the office network.

If they are permanently at home then yes a DSE assessment needs to be carried out.

Typically a screen, docking station, keyboard, mouse and adjustable chair as a minimum

It's rare that people are given lots of brand new equipment, companies think they are doing you a favour by letting you work remotely. It's often a question of seeing if there's some spare kit in the cupboard at work and "make do and mend"

I managed to wrangle a docking station and there was a spare keyboard in the filing drawer, so I asked if I could use it at home as it was going spare.

I bought my own wide screen monitor in a Curry's sale for about £120 but it's lasted for years, and I didn't have to go through the rigmarole of justifying the claim.

If you have a disability and put in a Reasonable Adjustments request, you'd be more likely to get brand new kit like a new chair, wrist support, light, wide monitor etc. otherwise it's buy some, borrow some where I work.

A DSE assessment has to be carried out if you work from home. But many companies aren’t keen on home working. I’m not allowed to work from home, despite being classed as disabled, and despite other staff being allowed to - because they were allowed to for historical reasons/ company policy in the past.

Depends where you are contracted to work. I am contractually based from the office but mainly wfh. So they dont have to provide anything as if I queried ot the response would be to go back to the office. I have a laptop anyway, not many people work off a desktop these days.

Re disability, access to work can provide equipment free, or minimal employer contribution.