Working from home with company property... Worried about liability

fredthefish

Hey,

I work from home most weeks but occasionally I am required to travel to the office for a week at a time.

My employer has provided me with a laptop to work on which I take home with me when we are not working in the office.

Occasionally I am also expected to keep this laptop with me out of hours (if, say, my colleagues who do out-of-hours support are on holiday or have pre-arranged engagements)

Recently it has been suggested that on top of this laptop I also have a new MacBook Pro in order to support Mac users as well as Windows.

My question is regarding liability for these laptops. All along I have assumed that the company will have some kind of insurance cover for the old laptop I'm using, as it was originally purchased for office use, and my thinking has been that if they have neglected to update their insurance to reflect its new off-premises use then that's not my concern.

However now that they are talking about me having a brand new MacBook Pro I am concerned that I may then have a total of £2000 worth of the company's computer equipment in my house (or on my person, if I'm dragging them around with me out-of-hours or commuting to/from the office) at any given time.

Can I expect my employer to have insurance to cover these items? I don't think I could survive a £2000 deduction from my salary (which would be WAY more than a month's wage) should these be stolen or damaged in some way and my company turning sour.

Neither my contract nor initial offer letter etc make any reference to policies surrounding taking company property home, or what happens if it is stolen or accidentally damaged, so I want to know what the law or general guidance says here before going and mentioning this to my employer all guns blazing in case it then means that "oh no you are liable for any company property taken out of the building" is then on record in email form (where otherwise it wouldn't be)

Thanks.

lincroft1710

What would happen if you accidentally damaged the MacBook Pro whilst on company premises, or the premises were burgled and the MBP was stolen?

bap98189

Insurance is not relevant. No business is going to claim on business insurance for a single laptop.

What is important is who is liable for any damage. Any reasonable employer would take responsibility for the equipment (so long as the damage is not malicious or caused by stupidity). You need to talk to your employer and ask them about liability whilst the items are in your possession outside the office. Hopefully they have already thought about this and have a policy in place. If they don't, ask them to put in writing what their policy would be, then you know where you stand.

TBagpuss

Does your company have an office manual or handbook of any kind? If so, I would check there. Now least because you will look a bit foolish if you ask them and they say "It's all covered in the hand book which you're supposed to have read on induction")

Subject to that I would be inclined to speak ask them - not 'going in all guns blazing' but to say "Are there any specific terms in the insurance for the MacBook that I need to be aware of?" It may well be that the insurance would not cover it if it were stolen from a vehicle, for instance, unless it was locked out of sight in the boot.

I would expect that the default is that you would only be liable if you were negligent or deliberately damaged the item, but it is sensible to ask about any exclusions. It also means that if they query why you are asking you can say that while you are sure that they have insurance to cover company equipment used out of the office, as you are going to be having an expensive new piece of equipment you wanted to be sure that you knew what, if any, specific responsibilities you had so that you can make sure that you don't inadvertantly invalidate any claim they may have if it is lost, stolen or damaged.

An employer can't make deductions from your wages at will and I think that they would struggle to justify trying to charge you for it unless there was specific provision in you contract or they could show that you were at fault.

InsideInsurance

Its their choice if they want to insurer a risk or not. What you actually want to know is if they hold you liable for it or not.

If your not liable and they dont want to insurer it then its no odds to you. A bluechip corporation is never going to be claiming on insurance for a £2k laptop getting stolen as this is attritional to such an organisation. Would probably be different if you are a 10 man company.

A quick question should solve it, ideally do it by email etc so you have evidence for it. Certainly with everywhere I've worked the company remains responsible for its kit not you. Even had a case where a counter fraud person tried to prove how so many claims for broken laptops are dubious because how robust modern laptops are by knocking her company laptop off the table intentionally. Of cause the screen smashed, DVD drive flew across the room, hinges broke and she had a very embarrassing call to make to IT and explained she intentionally dropped it and it broke. Even in that case they didnt make her pay (other than the ribbing they gave her for being an idiot)

macca1974

I'd ask the question, as there is bound to be a policy. At a previous company (where I was on the sales side so out on the road with my work laptop quite a lot). The rule was that they would cover the loss if the laptop had been looked after (so kept in the boot of the car in a safety box they provided), but you had to pay if it had been left on your front seat, or you'd left it at the pub after taking clients out (which did happen to a colleague but not me!).

fredthefish

I will ask the question about whether I am liable for the laptops if they are lost due to theft or loss.

The employee handbook only refers to damage caused through "misuse or carelessness". I have always found 'carelessness' vague. How is this defined? Would it be 'carelessness' if I'm the most careful person in the world but accidentally spill a coffee over it? Or is it more extreme - e.g. dropping it down the stairs, or leaving it on the floor and someone puts their foot through it etc?

InsideInsurance

fredthefish wrote: »

The employee handbook only refers to damage caused through "misuse or carelessness". I have always found 'carelessness' vague. How is this defined? Would it be 'carelessness' if I'm the most careful person in the world but accidentally spill a coffee over it? Or is it more extreme - e.g. dropping it down the stairs, or leaving it on the floor and someone puts their foot through it etc?

Lawyers love vagueness because it generates a lot of revenue for them then arguing over the definition for specific cases.

You arent going to get a better definition as they will want to keep it vague for a case by case review. Spilling a coffee over the laptop? Well that depends what you were doing at the time. You have a coffee 2' from the laptop and it gets knocked over by a file falling from a shelf then your on safe grounds. You trying to see if you can balance a cup of coffee on one finger over your laptop and you are ropy grounds - of cause you being the only one there for both incidents then it pretty much becomes your choice about what happened.

DKLS

Worth checking for any specific rules around company property, I have managed to kill a couple of work computers and they were replaced at no cost to me, they were more concerned about when my last back up was in case I had lost any work.