In the first week of the new century the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the US Department of Labor released a statement to the effect that OSHA's rules for traditional offices also applied to home offices of telecommuters. The new rules caused an enormous outcry from a variety of sources, including shouts of outrage by some members of Congress. We were flooded with requests for interviews, to the extent that, by the end of the first week of the year, we were almost one week behind in our schedule; this even after OSHA rescinded its statement the following day. If you wish to see the gory details, you may download a copy of the content of the letter (it's about 70K).

Our responses to the various inquiries can be summarized as follows:

What's new? For decades we have been telling clients that it is important that teleworkers' home offices be kept at least as free from hazards as traditional offices. We have also generally recommended that there be some form of written agreement between employer and teleworker that specifies their respective responsibilities, including workplace safety issues. In essence we have been saying: obey the spirit of the OSHA regulations but don't get hung up on details (such as exit signs) that apply to traditional workplaces but not to homes. All of these points are covered in Managing Telework (Chapter 8 and Appendix B). OSHA subsequently dropped their rules as they apply to homes.

What accident risk? The vast majority of teleworkers are very responsible and conscientious people. They can be relied upon to keep their agreements, including maintaining home offices in safe condition. Furthermore, most teleworkers consider that teleworking is a privilege, not a right. Hence, they take special pains to ensure that they continue to earn that privilege. We do not know of a single successful case being brought by a teleworker against an employer on the basis of work safety violations—and we've been watching for such incidents since 1970! We have seen rumors of one or two cases being brought over the last 30 years; occasional smoke but no flames. Considering that there are now more than 21 million teleworkers in the US alone, that brings the annual per capita risk of a workers' compensation or related case down to less than 0.0000003% or thereabouts, not something to cause much sleep loss by corporate attorneys or insurance companies.

In short, the OSHA flap was a lot like the Y2K situation: lots of heat, and maybe some money spent, but not much there there. By the way, on 27 January 2000, OSHA announced that it had no jurisdiction over home offices—from total control to hands off in less than a month!

In our opinion, employers do have responsibility for informing employees of the facts about safety in home offices, and for providing assistance—including equipment, furniture, and aid in making any necessary wiring modifications, as stated above—even though OSHA appears to have abdicated its role.