Home office: occupational health and safety - useful information

The topic of home office is on everyone's lips and more and more employees are forced to work from home. Due to changes in this area, occupational health and safety in the home office is not always clearly regulated. Nevertheless, the Occupational Health and Safety Act provides framework conditions.

What is the structure of occupational health and safety in the home office?

An important prerequisite for ensuring occupational health and safety is the correct set-up of the home office.

• This includes high-quality and adequate furniture, good lighting and the minimization of potential health risks (for example, poor ventilation or electrical equipment).
• In addition to the physical aspects of occupational health and safety in the home office, psychological factors also play a key role. In the home office, many people tend to ignore break times and no longer clearly separate work and leisure time.
• Although there is a set of rules through the Workplace Ordinance, which ensures protection during work, this is often not clearly defined for the home office.

Must the employer conduct a risk assessment of the home office?In principle, an employer must conduct an assessment of potential hazards when first setting up the home office, so as to ensure the protection of the employee. This can be done either through a survey or a visit to your home office. However, a visit by the employer to determine occupational health and safety may only occur with your express consent.