Posted By Steve Conway The HSE defines Homeworkers as "people employed to work at home for an employer." While this is clear cut for those who are full time homeworkers, what about those who work there one or two days a week? I feel for health and safety purposes they are homeworkers - but the potential costs can begin to outweigh the benefits. I would be grateful for comments/solutions from those with experience this. Cheers Steve

Posted By Colin Williams Steve, Below is an excerpt from our policy documentation on homeworkers if it helps. Regards, Colin "There is no one single definition of a homeworker, rather a number of scenarios ranging from someone who asks for equipment to use occasionally at home to those based at home for the vast proportion of their work. The definitions below are an attempt to categorise these: Casual Homeworker: Someone who works from home on some occasions, usually to complete specific tasks, e.g. a particular report. Frequency likely to be less than one day per week. This scenario would include a lot of managers who are also frequent travellers. Regular Homeworker: This person works from home on a regular basis, although home is not defined as their main base. It would be likely this person would have a dedicated space set up at home, and may possibly be a candidate for hot desking at the office. Frequency could be up to 50% of their time at home per week. This arrangement will usually have been agreed with HR on an individual basis. Business Requirement Homeworker: This person has their main base defined as home, and has no personal dedicated space at the office. Frequency would be above 50% of their time working away from the site / at home. This person will have a dedicated office space at home, with equipment supplied by the Company. This arrangement must have been agreed with HR. In the case of the Casual Homeworker, the duties on the employer to carry out risk assessments and provide a work office environment will not be as stringent as for a Business Requirement Homeworker. However any employee may complete the Homeworker Risk Assessment Checklist and then discuss the outcome of this with their line manager. For the Regular and Business Requirement Homeworker, a risk assessment must be completed and should involve a home visit from either the line manager or a member of the Occupational Safety, Health & Environment team. This will certainly be the case for the Business Requirement Homeworker as they will spend the greater part of their time at work in the home office environment. For the Regular Homeworker a home visit may not be required, dependant upon the actual proportion of time spent at their home office."