Canadian HR Reporter

28 www.hrreporter.com F E A T U R E S S P E C I A L R E P O R T LEGAL GUIDE WORKPLACE SAFETY LAWS STILL APPLY WITH WORK FROM HOME COVID-19 pandemic rapidly accelerated what was already an emerging trend: More employees are working from home. According to Statistics Canada, 26.4 per cent of Canadians were still working from home in September 2020, and almost 25 per cent of Canadian businesses said they expected 10 per cent or more of their workforce to continue to work remotely even post-pandemic, by choice or requirement. But while these employees are out of their employers' sight, they can't be out of employers' minds: Occupational health and safety laws make employers responsible for a safe working environ- ment for their employees whether they work from the office or from home. The definition of workplace or place of employment in most Canadian occ upational health and safe ty (OHS) laws is broad enough to cover employees working from home. Thus, most employers are under the same overarching general duty to take every reasonable precaution to ensure a healthy and safe workplace, and to perform due diligence, for employees working from home as they are for employees working in-office or on-site. The content of this duty might change with the context, and employers might owe specific duties to employees working from home. For example, some OHS laws impose an obligation to check in on employees working alone or provide first aid training or kits for those working alone. Employees also have obligations under OHS laws: They must maintain safe workplaces and report hazards, so they have a duty to maintain their home working space in a safe condition. But the primary obligation falls on the employer: If an employee's home isn't safe, it could be a violation of OHS laws for which the employer could be responsible, regardless of whether the employee is negligent. Employers should implement these five actions to help mitigate OHS liability for remote employees: • Write (or review and revise) workplace safety plans and policies to capture working from home and establish safety expectations for home-based employees. • Identify alternate ways to meet OHS obligations. For example, obligations to provide access to certain OHS policies and materials in the workplace might require employers to provide employees working at home with digital access to these documents. • Try to delineate remote employees' work time and environment. For example, require employees to designate a specific area as a workspace and to take lunch and rest breaks at designated times. • Perform a site check of employees' remote offices to evaluate the risk of liability for other accidents that might occur while an employee works remotely, such as ensuring there are no potential safety hazards (such as overloaded extension cords or tripping risks). If you can't, have employees conduct and submit a risk assessment and work with them to eliminate risks or hazards; and if that's still not possible, give employees good resources for workspace design, setup and maintenance. • Review and extend your business liability insurance coverage to remote employees' homes and require employees to maintain homeowner's or renter's insurance. CHRR This article is information only; it is not legal advice. McInnes Cooper excludes all liability for anything contained in or any use of this article. © McInnes Cooper, 2020. All rights reserved. THE ALEX WARSHICK Lawyer McInnes Cooper in Halifax MICHAEL MURPHY Partner McInnes Cooper in Halifax

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