“Work From Home!” This concept can be said to be a product of the COVID-19 Pandemic although a handful of businesses were already operating remotely prior to the Pandemic, owing to the nature of their operations or probably due to the location of their head-offices situate outside of the country. The idea of working at home, although difficult to imagine in 2019, was gracefully welcomed by employers and workers in around the beginning of 2020. No doubt, it is a feasible initiative but its regulation and management remain complex.

An employment agreement is the basis of the relationship of an employer and a worker. There are further agreed policies which spread over the operation and management of a business. It is often misunderstood that the terms of an employment contract or the policies in place are the sole elements that are to be considered binding between an employer and a worker who is in continuous employment. In fact, all those policies and the terms of the employment contract have to be strictly in compliance with the law, namely the Workers' Rights Act 2019 coupled with the numerous relevant regulations that devolves from this legislation. Therefore the Court may hold that any such a clause or policy is void, being contrary to the Workers' Rights Act 2019.

Likewise, the Workers' Rights (Working from Home) Regulations 2020 which has been made by the Minister under the Workers' Rights Act 2019 (the “WFH Regulations”) cannot be overlooked. The WFH Regulations are applicable to all workers who undertake work on full time or part time basis irrespective of whether it is performed on permanent, temporary or occasional basis. Workers whose work are split between home, office or place of business of a client are also beneficiaries of these regulations. It imposes specific conditions on both the employer and the worker, which both parties have to comply with.

Accordingly, an employer may ask a worker to work from home by giving a notice of 48 hours and the worker shall comply with the instructions. The employer may equally consider at its own discretion whether or not to approve a request made by a worker to work from home. In the event that a worker shall work from home, a “Work From Home Agreement” in the form and containing the terms prescribed in the WFH Regulations has to be entered by the employer and the worker. That agreement is nonetheless supplemental to the employment contract and the other provisions of the Workers' Rights Act 2019.

Just as workers who are provided with travel allowance or bus/ light rail fare for travel to and from their workplace, workers from home (“homeworkers”) are equally entitled to allowances for work-related expenses at home, such as the costs incurred for the use of electricity, water, telecommunication, or any other facility in connection with the work performed at home, amongst others as specified in the WFH Regulations. The employer has to refund the worker, on a monthly basis, the amount incurred in respect of work-related expenses as agreed by both parties.

An interesting aspect of the WFH Regulations is the fact that a homeworker has an obligation to inform his or her employer of the proposed place where he or she shall be working. Equally, the employer has the ability where appropriate to conduct a suitable and sufficient assessment at the proposed place of work to ensure that performance of work at the place that has been proposed will not entail any risk to the health and safety of the homeworker and members of his family. This right conferred to an employer, good as it might seem, raises numerous questions as to its practicability. For instance, although the health and safety aspect has been taken into consideration by the lawmakers, the privacy of the members of the family of the worker residing at the place of assessment should also be considered.

The law as it stands pertaining to work from home, making basic provisions as to the obligations of workers and employers, appears to be liberal by leaving some of the decisions in the hands of the homeworkers and employers such as agreeing to the allowance payable for work-related expenses. It is undoubtedly difficult for an employer to supervise a homeworker. As such, an employer has to make its own rules and regulations to ensure the effective management of the homeworkers in compliance with the law. Nonetheless, the practicability of some of the requisites of the WFH Regulations as they currently stand remains questionable.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.