Work from home – does the employer have to provide equipment?

[vickyp]

#80616

Forum: Community

If an employer is shifting to a work from home program, does the employer have to provide those employees with the equipment (wifi, laptop)? We are a not-for-profit with tight budgets. Only half our staff have work laptops and work cellphones. Our IT department has provided staff with instructions on how to log in to the network remotely and are asking employees (who don’t have organization assigned equipment) to use their own personal computers and devices when working from home. when employee asked if we will be paying for part of their cell phone and Internet bill. This was not something we were planning to do. What issues do we need to be mindful of?

[vickyp]

#80615

Many employers have BYOD (bring your own device) policies requiring employees to use their own laptops, including backups. The downside, in addition to cost to employee, is integrating their devices into your own systems. Of course, there are also privacy and security issues involved.
Another option is to give employees a stipend to buy the devices they need. Of course, if you can’t afford that, it’s not going to do much good. The other option is to let the employees bring their office computer homes, assuming all employees have computers at work.
At end of the day, the equipment arrangements for remote work are a matter of business and budget rather than law, as long as all employees are treated fairly and consistently. In other words, there’s no law I know of that requires employers to pay for employees home-use laptops. Hope that helps. Apologize for delay. Glenn

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