News on 13 October 2000
Companies are consistently violating employees’ health and safety rights with poorly implemented teleworking practices, according to industry analyst the Gartner Group.
Gartner is advising teleworkers to ensure that corporate policies and procedures are clearly spelled out – and implemented – right from the start.
While remote working grows rapidly in the UK, it's clear that responsibility rests with the employer. But it is also clear the H&S issues often don’t rate very high.
Speaking to technology news service silicon.com, Stephanie James, policy advisor on employment practice with the British Chamber of Commerce, said: "I think people just implement teleworking without thinking about legal implications. They talk about it and they want people to do it, but last on their list of priorities are contractual liabilities. I can see it as a potential problem."
Gartner spots the same problem in the States, though there the responsibility for H&S is not so clear-cut. Instances of injury or ill health could see the launch of legal proceedings and a call on corporate ‘deep pockets’. Here, it seems only a matter of time before a company without effective policies in place finds itself in this position, too.
