With the home now becoming a workplace for many, and likely to remain so for at least a month, employers are reminded that their duty to protect the health and safety of their employees remains, especially those who use display screen equipment (DSE), like PCs and laptops, on a daily basis for more than an hour at a time.
The display screen equipment (DSE) at work approved code of practice recommends conducting an ergonomic assessment of your employee’s workstation as the most practicable way to fulfil your duty of care. All DSE assessments must be completed by someone who is suitably trained and aware of the requirements laid out in the approved code of practice.
Under usual circumstances, a DSE Assessor would attend your employee’s workplace in order to undertake an assessment of the workstation arrangements. However, during this current period of social distancing it is important to maintain the public health recommendations while still ensuring your duties as an employer as still being fulfilled. This means assessing the risks that may develop from an employee’s home workstation, whether it is provided partially or fully by the employer or not.
Law At Work has trained DSE Assessors who are able to carry out this duty on your behalf to ensure employee workstations are up to standard with the approved code of practice. While the current advice is to remain working from home where possible, Law At Work is able to provide some solutions for DSE Assessment.
One option for employers is for us to arrange a video call with your employees at a time that suits them to discuss what working arrangements they have in place, and provide recommendations on ways they can improve their workstation. With this option, we will provide you an assessment report detailing our findings and recommendations. A copy of this report must be kept on the employee’s file for future reference.
Alternatively, we offer an eLearning course that details the correct set-up and use of a computer workstation, including desk and chair. This comprises the first module, with the second being a self-assessment that is reviewed by one of our DSE Assessors. Further details of this course can be found in the online training section of our website.
Both of these options provide your staff with the necessary assessments and recommendations to follow the DSE at work approved code of practice without creating any risk of transmitting the coronavirus to your staff or to ours. If you would like some more information on either of these options, please contact us to see how we can help.
