Abstract
Workplace risk assessment is one of the key tools for improving occupational safety and health conditions. However, providing risk assessment for teleworkplaces in the COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions has been a challenge for employers. The objective of this study was to identify the frequency of implementation of workplace risk assessment for teleworkplaces and the association between it and self-reported health complaints among teleworkers during the 1st emergency state of the COVID-19 pandemic in Latvia. Teleworkers were recruited using a non-probability sampling (snowball sampling) method and social media advertisements. To obtain data that is representative of the demographic profile of the working population in Latvia, the sample was weighed based on gender and age. Out of 447 teleworking respondents included in our analysis, only 20.3% have mentioned that their employer had assessed the teleworking conditions (additional 8.1% reported partial assessment). Workers who have reported lack of risk assessment more often have health related complaints – e.g., pain longer than three days (26.9% with risk assessment versus 73.1% with no risk assessment), sore eyes (24.4% versus 75.6%) and anxiety (21.8% versus 78.2%) (p < 0.001 in all cases, except for pain). Increased incidence of occupational musculoskeletal diseases and burnout can be predicted in coming years in Latvia. Good practise examples should be gathered and promoted; guidelines for labour inspection should be developed in order to cover supervision of teleworking workplaces.
Highlights
1.1 Telework and COVID-19As a response to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and depending on the local situation, governments have taken different measures to reduce the spreading of COVID-19, which included the compulsory or voluntary transition to telework when possible
From 12 March 2020 when the first emergency state was announced until the first quarter of 2021 the percentage of workers working from home in Latvia has been changing between 8.9% of the total workforce when COVID-19 restrictions were mild, and 22.6% when COVID-19 restrictions were rather strict [1]
When looking at the results of the web-survey, only 20.3% of teleworkers have reported that their employer has assessed the teleworking conditions
Summary
1.1 Telework and COVID-19As a response to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and depending on the local situation, governments have taken different measures to reduce the spreading of COVID-19, which included the compulsory or voluntary transition to telework when possible. The definition of telework is defined in the national Labour Protection Law that transposes requirements of the Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989 [2,3]. According to this law, telework is defined as “the type of work which could be done in the premises of the employer, but on regular basis is done outside these premises using information and communication technologies” [2]. A rather similar definition can be found in literature, e.g., “telecommuting is defined organization and/or execution of tasks performed away from the central offices or production facilities of organizations for a certain period in pre-established work schedules, information and communication technologies are used to establish communication between workers and to respond to the demands of the organization remotely” [4]
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