Employers must be careful not to expose themselves to allegations of discrimination when sending certain workers to work remotely or returning workers to stationary work. Employers need to analyse whether their actions are fair and do not differentiate between employees due to their biased nature.

When the eligibility rules on the basis of which employees are appointed to work at home or in an establishment are vague or not specified at all, employees may feel insecure. Therefore, it is worth to develop rules for the provision of work at the time of the coronavirus pandemic and clearly explain them to employees. Of course, remembering that employees can not feel in any way less treated. The criteria should be clearly defined and understandable to employees, objective, specific and justified in a given situation. A good solution is to introduce rotation, employees will exchange and take turns working from home or in the office. You can specify that people change weekly or come to work on a stationary basis every other day.

When determining the rules of home office work, in the current epidemiological situation, employers often take into account the criterion of age, residence or care of an elderly person. In such a case, the supervisor may face a charge of discrimination. However, given current knowledge of coronavirus, transmissions of medical communities and information provided by the government, the recognition of such groups of people as more at risk of infection or a more severe course of the disease should not be called into question.

Importantly, by introducing such rules in the company, the employer can defend himself with the obligation to ensure the safety of employees and care for their health and life. It is not allowed for managers to be allowed to work from home and no longer for those in lower positions, and the opposite should not be the case.  It is unacceptable to pay the allowance for the use of private equipment only for certain employees, as well as the absence of equal rules for providing workers with the tools they need to carry out their work.

But what if the employer suspects that the employee is working from home in an unprofessional way, e.g. dealing with other private matters while working? The superior in this case should be able to explain on what basis he drew such conclusions. Such reasons may be the time of logging into the program on which the company works, the repeated lack of logins to work mail, or a long time of not answering work messages. Especially when the employer has explained that such a method of communication will be used during remote work.

Source: https://firma.rp.pl/prawo-podatki/kadry-place/10494-praca-zdalna-pracownik-pracodawca-dyskryminacja