Starting in 2021, by law employers must provide ergonomic equipment to home office workers

February 12, 2021 3 min read

On January 11, the reform that regulates teleworking entered into force, which specifies in its article 311 that the boss must provide computer equipment necessary to carry out the work, maintenance of it, ergonomic chairs, printers, among others to the employees who do home office .

This also benefits the employer, as according to the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety , for every dollar invested in employee safety, there are savings of between three and six dollars. In other words, the fewer health incidents related to musculoskeletal disorders derived from the “work” that employees present, the greater the savings of the companies.

Arturo Mota, regional sales director for Herman Miller Mexico , comments that the term ergonomics probably had no more relevance than in these days when, forced by the pandemic, they had to implement work at home from one day to the next. “The time that we remain seated is approximately 40 hours a week . In such a way that guaranteeing a good posture through different tools is an obligation and a support that will generate an increase in productivity. Having an ergonomic chair as one more work tool guarantees between 15% and 20% more productivity, reducing distractions and providing physical and mental benefits . “

In addition to the home office reform, there is also the Official Mexican Standard (NOM) 035, which aims to identify, analyze and prevent psychosocial risk factors, as well as promote a favorable organizational environment in the workplace.

The issue of postures at work is relevant; Due to confinement, few people have adequate furniture to carry out their work, an important element is the chair.

“Office chairs should be considered today as one more work tool and under this consideration their performance is linked to the benefits that each company determines for its employees. We know that this is a great step for the occupational health care of those employees who do their work from home, the ideal is that desks and monitor stands are also included in the benefits ”, says Arturo Mota.

One of the determining factors for compliance with the labor reform is the investment that companies will have to make to facilitate the inputs that are marked in article 311 . In this sense, Herman Miller has commercial partners to generate a furniture leasing plan, to avoid the decapitalization of the companies.

Mota indicates that companies could spend, on average, 20,000 to 30,000 pesos per employee , but investment in quality furniture represents savings for companies in the medium and long term. These factors have a positive impact on the productivity and health of employees, lowering the cost of medical and disability insurance.