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Are Employers
Still Responsible for Home Safety?
(last updated February 2000)
In the first week of Y2K, OSHA
issued an opinion letter stating that companies who allow
employees to work at home are responsible for federal health
and safety violations that occur at the home work site. Per
the opinion letter, this obligation would cover all work
done at home, even the parent who has to dash out of the
office to be with a sick child and finishes a memo at home.
The letter also stated that employers have an obligation
to inspect home work sites. OSHA stated that this was not
a new rule, but merely a declaration of existing policy.
Within two days, the opinion had created so much controversy
that U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis Herman withdrew the interpretation
letter. This withdrawal of the letter does not, however, change
OSHA’s view of employer responsibilities. Moreover, Cal-OSHA
has long held the same standards with respect to the home work
site.
The Labor Secretary indicated that the controversy has raised
important questions about what protections Americans who work
at home can expect from the government. She said she will convene
a conference of business and labor leaders and set up an interagency
task force to conduct a wide-ranging study of the issue. According
to Herman, “Employers are responsible for employee safety and
health, but we don't know what that means and how that applies
to these new work arrangements in the home today.”
While hastily withdrawing its opinion letter, OSHA officials
insisted that the withdrawal did not constitute a change in
government policy and that the agency would take no new action.
Neither OSHA nor Cal-OSHA has ever conducted government inspections
of home offices. However, since the authority of both state
and federal workplace safety law extends to every work site,
no matter where the employee toils, the ostensible authority
of the government to conduct home office inspections exists.
The real result of the OSHA letter and its withdrawal is to
raise the issue of how workplace safety rules apply in the
home and to assure employees that the government will not drop
in for an inspection. However, employers still could be held
liable if they know or should reasonably have known about home
workplace hazards and fail to correct them. This would include
everything from computers that overload home electrical circuits,
to rickety stairs leading to a basement office, to ergonomic
safety issues.
Telecommuting is a rapidly growing practice, with estimates
of over 20 million Americans working at home. Although employers
have long understood that they are responsible for safety whenever
and wherever an employee is working, the letter has ignited
a fierce debate that is likely to have a chilling effect on
the willingness of many employers to allow telecommuting. However,
since most telecommuting arrangements are reserved for a company’s
most trusted employees, with careful planning, such arrangements
should still be successful.
Strategy: It is suggested
that companies should train
people to set up safe home
offices and limit the areas
that will be considered the
employee’s “work space.” Employers
should also periodically inspect
at-home workers' quarters,
and obtain the employee’s permission
to do so when establishing
the home work site arrangement. |
| This article is a general
overview of the subject matter at the date that it was last
updated, and is not meant to provide professional opinions
regarding any specific case, matter, or set of facts, or
to substitute for the professional advice of Waag and Co.
Instead, please contact Susan S. Waag, Esq. for additional
information. |
