Written health and safety policy

[ch 8: page 45]

An employer with five or more staff must have a written health and safety policy, which must cover any risks from homeworking. Any changes should be made in consultation with any recognised union. The policy needs to be easily accessible to all staff, including homeworkers, for example on the intranet, and should cover:

• the preventative steps the employer has taken to protect homeworkers;

• how the employer is assessing the risks of homeworking;

• what steps they are taking to protect groups at particular risk, such as young, pregnant, older, disabled or lone workers, or workers at risk of domestic violence; and

• how risks may impact family members and housemates.

Many of the homeworking agreements viewed by the LRD focus heavily on the health and safety aspect of homeworking. Key areas are the safety of display screen equipment, electrical safety, fire safety, first aid, accident reporting, lone working, storage, manual handling, and sometimes the risks connected with household pets.