NOTE: Under our Pandemic, my bet OSHA is not going to enforce a lot of this, but I thought it would be a timely reminder as I have received numerous questions about working from home.
The OSH Act applies to work performed by an employee in any workplace within the United States, including a workplace located in the employee’s home. All employers, including those which have entered into “work at home” agreements with employees, are responsible for complying with the OSH Act and with safety and health standards.
Even when the workplace is in a designated area in an employee’s home, the employer retains some degree of control over the conditions of the “work at home” agreement. An important factor in the development of these arrangements is to ensure that employees are not exposed to reasonably foreseeable hazards created by their at-home employment. Ensuring safe and healthful working conditions for the employee should be a precondition for any home-based work assignments. Employers should exercise reasonable diligence to identify in advance the possible hazards associated with particular home work assignments and should provide the necessary protection through training, personal protective equipment, or other controls appropriate to reduce or eliminate the hazard. In some circumstances, the exercise of reasonable diligence may necessitate an on-site examination of the working environment by the employer. Employers must take steps to reduce or eliminate any work-related safety or health problems they become aware of through on-site visits or other means.
Certainly, where the employer provides work materials for use in the employee’s home, the employer should ensure that employer-provided tools or supplies pose no hazard under reasonably foreseeable conditions of storage or use by employees. An employer must also take appropriate steps when the employer knows or has reason to know that employee-provided tools or supplies could create a safety or health risk.
Is the employer responsible for compliance with the home itself?
An employer is responsible for ensuring that its employees have a safe and healthful workplace, not a safe and healthful home. The employer is responsible only for preventing or correcting hazards to which employees may be exposed in the course of their work. For example: if work is performed in the basement space of a residence and the stairs leading to the space are unsafe, the employer could be liable if the employer knows or reasonably should have known of the dangerous condition.
Is the employer required to do periodic compliance inspections in the home, which may include safety, health, fire, and environmental issues?
There is no general requirement in OSHA’s standards or regulations that employers routinely conduct safety inspections of all work locations. However, certain specific standards require periodic inspection of specific kinds of equipment and work operations, such as:
- ladders (§1910.25(d)(1)(x)) and §1910.26(c)(2)(vi));
- compressed gas cylinders (§1910.101(a));
- electrical protective equipment (§1910.137(b)(2)(ii));
- mechanical power-transmission equipment (§1910.219(p));
- resistance welding (§1910.255(e)); and
- portable electric equipment (§1910.334(a)(2)).
Although some of these operations may not be found in home-based workplaces, nevertheless, if an employer of home-based employees is aware of safety or health hazards, or has reason to be aware of such hazards, the OSH Act requires the employer to pursue all feasible steps to protect its employees; one obvious and effective means of ensuring employee safety would be periodic safety checks of employee working spaces.
This letter addresses only the employer’s responsibilities under the OSH Act. Depending on what kind of business the “at home” employer is engaged in, he or she may have additional responsibilities under other federal labor or environmental laws, as well as under state laws of general applicability, such as public health, licensing, zoning, fire and building codes, and other matters.
What would be OSHA’s inspection procedures in a private home?
OSHA’s health and safety inspection program is directed primarily toward industrial and commercial establishments and construction sites. We do not ordinarily conduct inspections of home-based workplaces, although from time to time we have visited private homes or apartments to investigate reports of sweatshop-type working conditions in the garment industry and other businesses. We would also investigate work-related fatalities occurring in home-based workplaces. Any OSHA enforcement visit must, of course, be conducted in compliance with the Fourth Amendment which would require that OSHA obtain either consent to inspect or a judicially-issued warrant.
(WARNING! This is dated information) Does the employer have to include these home locations in its file regarding record keeping on the OSHA 200 logs?
Employers are not required to maintain an OSHA 200 Log for each home. As stated in 29 CFR 1904.14, which concerns employees not in fixed establishments, employers of employees engaged in physically dispersed operations may satisfy the provisions of 1904.2, 1904.4, and 1904.6 with respect to such employees by maintaining the required records for each operation or group of operations subject to common supervision (field superintendent, field supervisor, etc.) in an established central place.
Injuries and illnesses that occur to employees working at a home location are recordable on the employer’s OSHA 200 Log, if they are work-related and meet the criteria for an OSHA recordable injury or illness under 29 CFR Part 1904.2 and the Recordkeeping Guidelines for Occupational Injuries and Illnesses. Injuries and illnesses that result from an event or exposure off the employer’s premises are work-related if the worker was engaged in work-related activities or was present as a condition of his or her employment (see Recordkeeping Guidelines, page 35, Section 2). These criteria must be applied to employees who work at their homes. The Recordkeeping Guidelines are available from the Government Printing Office, OSHA’s CD-ROM, and the OSHA website — www.osha.gov.
If an employee was injured or became ill while performing duties in the interest of the employer, the case would be considered work-related. If an employee was injured or became ill while performing normal living conditions (e.g., eating), the case would not be considered work-related. For example, when an employee who works at home doing typing develops carpal tunnel syndrome, it must be determined whether the employee’s work duties in any way caused, contributed to, or aggravated the condition. If so, the condition is considered work-related for OSHA recordkeeping purposes.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance and Workers’ Compensation: An employer’s responsibility under the ADA falls outside OSHA’s statutory authority. Similarity, OSHA cannot address the responsibility for workers’ compensation in this type of situation, since OSHA does not have statutory authority in this area. For information concerning an employer’s responsibility for workers’ compensation the employer should contact the workers’ compensation agency in the State in which the workplace is located.
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Scenario:
Your letter asks for clarification of 29 CFR 1904.30(b)(3) and 1904.46(3) and asks the question; “if an employee who is telecommuting from home is injured inside the home, how is the determination made that the employee was actually involved in company business?” You use as your example:
In the middle of telecommuting for the company, employee hears their child crying outside and runs out to comfort them, tripping and breaking a leg in the process.
Response:
Section 1904.5(b)(7) states: How do I decide if a case is work-related when the employee is working at home? Injuries and illnesses that occur while an employee is working at home, including work in a home office, will be considered work-related if the injury or illness occurs while the employee is performing work for pay or compensation in the home, and the injury or illness is directly related to the performance of work rather than to the general home environment or setting. For example, if an employee drops a box of work documents and injures his or her foot, the case is considered work-related. If an employee’s fingernail is punctured by a needle from a sewing machine used to perform garment work at home, becomes infected and requires medical treatment, the injury is considered work-related. If an employee is injured because he or she trips on the family dog while rushing to answer a work phone call, the case is not considered work-related. If an employee working at home is electrocuted because of faulty home wiring, the injury is not considered work-related.
The scenario described in your letter does not meet the criteria for work relationship contained in 1904.5(b)(7) and should not be recorded on the OSHA Log.
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