What Happens if an Employee is Injured While Working From Home

With more and more Australians working remotely to minimise the spread of COVID-19, we’re finding many employers don’t realise their responsibility for ensuring a safe work environment still applies – even when staff are working from home.

Your Responsibilities as an Employer

As an employer, you are responsible for the safety of your employees, wherever they are working. Even when they’re working from home you have a duty of care to ensure that their work environment is safe.

If one of your employees is injured while working from home, whether that be as a result of poor ergonomics, or simply tripping and falling while on the clock – in most cases they will be able to claim on your workers compensation insurance. So ensuring you comply with all the relevant OHS requirements is very important.

While the current situation really is unprecedented, as a minimum we’re encouraging all of our clients to have their employees complete and submit a ‘Work From Home Safety Checklist’ – to help ensure they are exercising their duty of care and remain OHS compliant.

Because none of us know how long this is all going to go on for, we’re also encouraging our clients to ensure they have a Working From Home Policy / Procedure in place.

If you need help understanding your obligations and ensuring you comply with all relevant OHS requirements, don’t hesitate to get in touch– we’re here to help.