Before starting telework employees need to ensure that their employment status is unaffected legally by the change in workplace. Almost all specialists in this area emphasise the importance of maintaining the employer-employee relationship. If the organisation's objective in using teleworking is, in fact, to transfer work to independent contractors then workers should understand that this is a fundamental change to their relationship. A key principle of sound arrangements is a right of return to the workplace in the future. Employees should not commit themselves to long-term teleworking without very careful thought.
Personal circumstances can change rapidly and home-based work can quickly become impracticable.
A long-term commitment can then trap the employee, even to the extent of loss of employment. Teleworking proposals which genuinely seek mutual benefit will be more effective if they begin with a fixed-length pilot scheme. The absence of pilot tests should raise suspicions. Because teleworking will clearly be of increasing interest to ALIA members, I have made contact with the Euro-Telework group and sought their agreement to the Association's use of their extensive research in constructing guidelines for members. Shortly, I hope to develop a telework booklet in our employment-related information series.