The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is going to withdraw company-paid broadband at the end of March 2020. The CQC employs over 3,000 staff, the majority of whom work from home. It has offered staff a one-off “goodwill payment” of £230.
The CQC says that company-paid broadband is unnecessary now that most of its employees have their own unlimited broadband. It will of course make the CQC a large saving.
The CQC’s move raises questions about the lack of rules for employers of the 1.7 million employees who work from home. With homeworking, at least for part of the week, becoming increasingly common, some employers already provide employees with packages of support. For example, BT gives employees an allowance to buy an ergonomic chair, desk and laptop, and supplies BT broadband. However, many employers do not put much in place for their home workers.
If your business has home workers, do you have arrangements in place for home working? Do you carry out risk assessments for their workplace? Do you provide employees with adequate equipment for them to work at home? Do you consider if they are treated consistently with other employees? Are they managed effectively because they are out of the workplace? If these are things you haven’t considered, now is a good time to look at them as homeworking is likely to be ever more common. Risks of not addressing this include personal injury claims, employment law claims and poor productivity.
If you have any questions on this article, or any other area of Employment Law or HR, please contact Rob Tice on 01332 866610 or email at rob.tice@precepthr.com.
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