Working from home: From invisibility to decent work

Homeworkers that are engaged in the production of manufactured goods, often in the final stage of production. This can also include artisanal production, such as the making of handicrafts.

What does it look like? Anchara's story

Anchara has been weaving fishing nets from her home in Thailand for 12 years. This allows her to keep a paid job while taking care of her children. However, due to the low piece rate, she earns less than the prevailing minimum wage despite her agility at weaving large nets.

As she is operating in the informal economy, she does not enjoy most labour rights established in the labour legislation, and hopes to have soon the opportunity to get a formal job.

Teleworkers are employees who use computers and other technology to perform their work remotely from their homes.

What does it look like? Samuel and Jessica's stories

Samuel never liked his long commute to work or office politics. He was happy when he found a job that allowed him to work remotely from home. However, even though he has the same salary and benefits as his office colleagues, he feels isolated and worries that he has been overlooked for promotions.

Jessica shifted to working from home during the COVID-19 lockdowns. While she appreciates not having to commute and seeing her children more, she has also noticed that her working hours have seeped into her family time.

Many service-sector tasks are performed on online digital platforms, ranging from labelling photographs, writing text for a website to overseeing a Twitter account. The platform or client specifies how the tasks should be carried out and rates the worker’s performance. These workers are often considered to be independent contractors, even when they are not really autonomous or economically independent.

What does it look like? Sameer's story

Sameer has been working on micro-task platforms for five years. When he logs onto the platforms, he selects an available task to complete. The client sets the pay rate, which is usually modest. If the work that he submits is accepted, he will receive a payment in his bank account. However, he spends many unpaid hours looking for available tasks.

Working from home can provide access to opportunities for some workers who otherwise would not be able to undertake paid work. Some workers, mainly women, have difficulty leaving the home because of care responsibilities or social norms. Others may have a disability that makes it difficult for them to have a job outside their home. 

However, there is an important risk of informality, particularly in the case of industrial home work. In low- and middle-income countries for instance, 90% of all home-based workers work informally.

Teleworkers appreciate having the flexibility to organize their paid work around their domestic and family responsibilities. But working from home can also lead to a blurring between work and private life.

In industrial homework and online digital labour platforms, there are often periods of intense work, with tight deadlines, followed by periods of little or no work. In consequence, only 34% home-based workers work “normal hours” between 35 and 48 hours per week, against 42% of those who work outside the home.

Even with home work, the responsibility of creating a safe work environment rests on the employer. Yet the homeworker’s lack of knowledge about safe practices and improper equipment can lead to safety and health risks. In work involving chemicals, explosives or other hazardous materials, important risks exist for other family members and sometimes even for the local community.

Teleworkers may also face physical risks, due to the lack of ergonomy of their work environment, possible intensifications in the workload and excessive working hours. There are also psychosocial risks due to the blurring of work-personal boundaries and social isolation.

All these risks lead to higher occupational safety and health risks among homeworkers. In the United Kingdom, for example, homeworkers miss 50% more days of work due to illness than those who work outside the home.

Many homeworkers lack adequate social security, and only have access to benefits if a non-contributory system, such as a universal health protection scheme, exists in their country.

Industrial homeworkers and home-based digital platform workers are often classified as independent contractors and thus do not benefit from employer contributions into social security. Some industrial homeworkers are not even formally recognized as workers.

Homeworkers often face barriers – in law or in practice – to establishing or joining a union and are not always covered by collective bargaining agreements. Lack of representation makes it more difficult for them to access other rights at work. 

For example, union density in the United Kingdom was 24% for employees who did not work from home, whereas for homeworkers it was far less, 13.2%. In Indonesia, the numbers were even more dramatic: less than 1% for homeworkers as compared with almost 13% for other employees.

The right to join a trade union and to negotiate collectively is a fundamental right at work – all workers regardless of where they work should be able to exercise this right.