Reviving an old thread but I'm faced with this issue at the moment. I've read numerous documents and websites and I don't think I've found a definitive answer. We have a number of staff that work entirely from a home based office. They have recently reviewed their DSE assessments and as a result one is requesting a more adjustable chair to help with some back pain issues. Head office (not UK based) are currently taking a tentative stance that we don't provide desks and chairs for home offices.

It's not an outright no, but they are looking for some definitive source which says they are required to......

Can anyone point me in a better direction than I've found so far (various union pages which say it is vs various other sources saying it's not).

Thanks

Yio

Originally Posted by: Renny Thomson

teh_boy wrote:

Oh and laptop in bed? are we in the 90's? Tablets are for the bedroom!

Blue ones?

You wouldn't need sleeping tablets just read these posts.

If I was required to confirm I had suitable "home equipment" before being employed we would be looking at each other across a tribunal as it is your offered position that necessitates provision of equipment.

Those who have equipment typically do so because their current/previous employer has provided it.

I have even been sent to collect equipment from leavers so that it can be re-distributed.

So as your new employee the chair I had (been allowed to keep by my previous employer) is broken on day one what are you going to do about it?

What problem are you actually trying to solve with your 'one-size-fits-all' solution? A desk and a chair in themselves do not not make a healthy or usable workstation. You use the term 'suitable'. For who? Doing what? 

I have a standing desk shelf set-up and a slouching sofa set-up. They both seem perfectly suitable to me, I can alternate as I wish, watching webinars and making phone calls.

Homeworking is perfect for people with mobility problems for example, with very different ergonomic requirements - how will your desk & chair combo work for them?

You will be lucky if you find all your existing staff have room / capacity for homeworking. Some people live in a shared house, or even a caravan. 

Then there's all the ancillary stuff: essential laptop riser and separate inputting devices, probably an multi-socket extension, charger for mobile, smoke detector possibly. Home working requires a much more flexible and realistic approach to 'procurement and provision' than office based. 

If you were hiring a delivery driver would HR want them to have their own van?

(I will retract that question if you happen to work for particular on-line retailers exploiting the gigg economy).

Would recruitment of an FLT driver require them to have their own fork lift?

So why would recruitment of an "office" worker require them to provide the office?

Originally Posted by: Roundtuit

Would recruitment of an FLT driver require them to have their own fork lift?

So why would recruitment of an "office" worker require them to provide the office?

Alternatively – if someone doesn’t have the space for this hypothetical company-provided desk, do you expect the company to buy them a new house?

In normal times our approach is to say everyone works in the office (and has a company-provided desk chair etc there - though we don't provide any office-wear clothes).  If people request to work at home, one of the requirements for agreeing the arrangement is that they provide a suitable workplace to do so, including provision of their own desk, chair, electricity and connectivity. However, we don't have anyone that we require to work at home.

All this is obviously out the window at the moment,. but we are moving back towards that arrangement - normal place of work is the office, and people can request to work some time at home if they can provide a suitable working environment.

It is a given that except where uniform workwear is provided employees are free within the bounds of a dress code whilst at work. At home (except for modesty at video meeting) there is generally no need to be clothed.

The company "provided" desk for a home worker should fit the needs of the employee and the space within the property - someone has the wrong purchasing policy if they are sending desks that require a larger property.

Edited by user 27 August 2020 15:24:56(UTC)  | Reason: FFS