Right to Request Remote Working

Under the upcoming new Legislation Employers will be required to give their
Staff the opportunity to request remote working.

Any remote working area is governed under Safety, Health & Welfare at Work
Legislation and Employers are required to comply with all the same safety
requirements as they would if the employee was working from the Business
Premises.

The pandemic forced businesses to muddle through and, in some cases, ignore
Health & Safety. Under the proposed new Legislation this will no longer be an
option and Employers will be required to carry out a full physical assessment of
the proposed work location in order to make the decision as to whether the area
is suitable.

The risk assessment is a two-stage process. The first step is to ascertain what
equipment and additional resources are needed to support the Employee in their
remote location. Once the home office is set up it must be risk assessed in
consultation with the employee.

A Risk Assessment must be carried out by a “Competent Person” (someone with
sufficient training, experience and knowledge). It is important to note that
employees cannot properly self-assess. Self-assessment is null and void because
“everyone will pass a self-assessment exam”.

It will also be necessary, under General Data Protection Regulations, to ensure
that confidential data cannot be compromised while an employee is working
remotely. A review must be undertaken of the type of information that the
employee needs to access, how it is protected and is there sufficient security in
the proposed work place.

In order to comply with these requirements I can carry out on site Risk
Assessments for both Health & Safety and GDPR.

I hold a Diploma in Safety, Health & Welfare at Work, I am a Chartered Member
of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and have in excess of 22 years
experience in working in Health & Safety.

I am also a qualified European Certified Data Protection Officer and have
experience in auditing and putting Policies & Procedures in place to comply with
GDPR legislation.