I have a manager who has asked if his employees that come in and work on the weekends, as part of their normal 40 hours could start working from home on scheduled weekends.  I am a little concerned as far as tracking if they are working, but I have been reassured measures are in place to do this.  I am also worried about Worker's Compensation and not having record of employee punching in & out.  What else should I be concerned about?  Are my concerns valid?  Any pointers on how to get my point across?  Thank you.

Are they normally supervised when they work on site?

Is the nature of their work such that they can be held accountable for actually  having done it?  That is, can you tell if they have worked or not?

You can use time sheets that the employee has to sign but no matter what you do, the employer is responsible for measuring time worked.  Check with local counsel about your jurisdiction's treatment of sign sheets if the employee comes back and challenges it later in an over time dispute.

In light of the H1N1 virus and the upcoming winter season, your company, no matter what it's size, should have a telework policy in place. Your email shows a reason to get going on this at once.

Under a telework policy, employees and their managers sign an agreement stipulating how they will keep track of their time and work done, what equipment they will use, what is needed from IT regarding server access, etc.

These measures should negate your  hesitancy to allow employees to work from home unless these particular employees have given you cause not to trust them.

 

Not all work is a matter of trust, or it does not merit the pay level to attract people who can and will do the work without supervision.

Not all work can be done remotely.

Not everyone with the flu can perform the essential duties of their job.

 

I just don't want to overstate the case.  Telework agreements are fine.  As far as I am aware, employers cannot sign away their statutory responsibility for recording hours worked.  Of course, problems in accounting for hours can be offset by the employee's failure to play along but that doesn't dissolve the responsibility.  There are plenty of issues to be concerned about with people working off site (not even from home) and they cannot all be fixed with a contract.