Nowadays, thanks to advances in technology, more and more workers work from home. TUC analysis suggests that the number of people regularly working from home has increased by more than 800,000 since 2005, taking the total to around 4,218,700.

Every year, Work Wise UK, a not-for-profit campaigning group set up to promote smarter working practices, organises National Work from Home Day, now in its tenth year.  The charity also promotes Commute Smart Week, each year in November, to raise awareness of the need for smarter ways of commuting during the winter months.

The TUC strongly supports policies that embrace home working, which can lead to a better work-life balance, while saving time and money on costly commuting that benefits no one.

However, there are some important factors you need to bear in mind if you are thinking of asking to work from home, for some or all of your working week. In particular, if your organisation is new to home working, it would be a good idea to talk these through with your union rep if you have one.

Further Information

For more information on the health and safety aspects of homeworking, and what you need to be looking out for, see the Remote working section of our work-related Health advice.