Employees who work from home to look after a sick child or to juggle family commitments is fairly common practice but that could be about to change.

 

Luke Grant is joined by Kelly Brown, the Founder and Director of Recovery Partners which is a leading workplace safety organisation.

 

Mrs Brown says "A recent risk assessment has highlighted it may not be safe to allow parents to work from home when they are the primary carer of a small child.”

 

"The Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) requires employers must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the health and safety of other people is not put at risk from or while work is being carried out,” said Mrs Brown. 

 

"When assessing risk, we look at everything that could go wrong and when there is a small child at home, they need to be closely supervised by their parent as our concern is something may happen to the child while a parent is working. This may be breaching the employer’s duty of care."

 

“The home is seen as extension of the workplace when staff commit to working from there rather than heading into the office, with the onus then falling on to the employer to ensure a safe working environment.”