Work från home - legal challenges for work environment and insurance protection

Research problem and specific questionsThe pandemic has resulted in a new organization of work, with both work from home and workplace presence. The division leads to new challenges for work environment responsibility and insurance coverage.

When the workplace moves to the home, the organization and work environment becomes increasingly individualized, while the legal regulation is based on a labor market where the work is mainly performed in workplace, with control over the content of the work.The overall purpose of the project is to analyze the challenges of work from home for the work environment and insurance coverage from a legal perspective.

The aim is to make visible the consequences of that the legal backlog and analyze whether, and if so how, the legal application adapts to the work from home. The study intends to answer the following research questions;1.

How extensive are the employers´ obligations to carry out both preventive and rehabilitative or work-adaptation work environment measures for home work?2.

How far-reaching is the responsibility of employees to participate in or implement measures needed to achieve a good working environment at home work?3.

If, and if so, how, does home work affect the assessment of work and earning capacity within sick pay and the health and work injury insurance?Data and methodIt is a study in jurisprudence.

With a text-analytical method, applicable law is determined on the basis of predetermined sources; the law, preparatory work, precedent and previous research.

The value of legal sources varies, which is why a weighting of the different legal arguments based on cited sources in the analysis of the content of the law is necessary.

The legal source material is supplemented with empirical material in the form of court decisions from administrative law and appellate court, as well as decisions from the Swedish Work Environment Authority and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency.Plan for project realisationThe project is three years.

During the period, the legal analysis and the collection of material of the empirical material takes place partly on an ongoing basis, in order to, if possible, capture any changes in the law and make visible changes in the application of the law.

The costs refere to salary.RelevanceThe project concerns changes in working life in relation to the goal of a sustainable working life, ie to create good conditions at work, counteract rising sickness rates and promote a longer working life.