Work health and safety considerations
General
Under Work Health and Safety (WHS) legislation, the University has a duty of care to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of its staff while they are at the workplace, including if they are working from home. The WHS legislation defines a workplace as a place where work is carried out and includes any place where a staff member goes, or is likely to be, while working.
All work health and safety policies and procedures which apply to staff at the University also apply, as far as practicable, to staff working from home and to the home-based site.
Staff responsibilities
Staff are responsible for taking care to protect their own health and safety, including when working from home. In particular, staff must:
- comply with all applicable University WHS policies and procedures
- notify their supervisor as soon as possible of any work related incident/accident/injury that occurs whilst carrying out University duties at home and report the accident/incident on the University's on-line FlinSafe system within 24 hours.
Staff who are intending to work at home need to ensure that their home office is set up to optimise safety and comfort and that they adopt work practices to avoid eye strain and muscle fatigue. To assist in this staff should:
- complete the Working from home - WHS checklist above
- pay for and make any reasonable adjustments to the home office if the WHS checklist identifies that these need to be made.
For more information about setting up your workstation at home see Guidelines for safe work in the office environment.
