Good morning

Does the team think:

The employer is responsible for maintenance and inspections of DSE which is owned by the employee but being used to "work from home"

(DSE Assessment is a given)

Good Question.
No right answer I think, as there is no precedent.
There was a case up here (North Yorkshire) where an examiner working from home for an examination board (not NEBOSH!) had a laptop catch fire and burn down their cottage. She sued the board but that was a machine supplied by the board.

To pick up on the point you raised Decimomal.

Initially Employees would apply to work from home and become "homeworkers" they would also gain permission from Line Managers to work from home ad-hoc.

It is possible that in future they would only employ someone who could work from home.

Do you think that might be relevant?

Hi dbs,

Taken from the first paragraph of indg 226, as far as 'homeworkers' go....... 'of the work equipment used at home, you are only responsible for the equipment you supply'.

Think about the fact that wether or not they are working from home or homeworkers they still remain employees and therefore the employer has a Duty of Care for their Health and Safety. Their home would be deemed as their workplace and therefore, as minimum, the employer should complete a risk assessment around the home working arrangements / environment etc. being suitable and sufficient. This would include DSE assessment.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

This is where my question arose. I am in the process of preparing control measures to the Risk Assessment. I realise that whether they are homeworkers or working from home ad-hoc they are still employees carrying out work. Which inevitably leads to the equipment which becomes Work Equipment and therefore subject to PUWER which raises the question of responsiblity for that equipment. If you start to consider their home as a workplace where do you stop.

Thank you all for your replies.

I thought I would push my luck and simplify my question

I think I am correct that under PUWER, if you have an employee and the employee uses their own tools to work for their employer then the employer assumes responsibility for the safety, inspection and maintenance of those tools and equipment.

Would this then apply to an employee’s personal computer? Assuming they are at home using the PC to complete their normal company duties as a DSE User.

DSE Assessment is a given. It is the issue of the PC as Work Equipment I am interested in your opinions.

PS I realise this is not cutting edge manufacturing and the Risk may be considered insignificant by some but I need to provide a reccomendation and would appreciate my fellow professional's thoughts.

It is acceptable for staff to use their own computer for home working and as such should be compensated in some form which could include maintenance costs etc. There are other areas to consider as staff will be connected / logged into the organisations network and this presents issues so I would advise consult with your IT Department for advice as regards staff using their own personal computing resources. The IT Department may want to be satisfied that the personal computing resources are configuired correctly and that no unaccepotable information goverance / security risk exist.

In my opinion, the most appropriate action is for your organisation to supply all homeworkers with company equipment. I think this would be in the best interests of the employees but also your organisation.