Remote working

The primary workplace is the campus, but the employee can also agree with his immediate manager to work remotely. Working remotely can, for example, be in his own home, a meeting with a partner or colleague, elsewhere on campus, at a café or in the surrounding urban space, etc. 

DTU recommends that fixed working days from home are not determined and agreed upon, as this may result in a limitation of the flexibility that the organization seeks to promote through the current sub-policy on flexibility in the working day.

The Working Environment Act applies no matter where you work and must always be carried out in a fully responsible manner in terms of safety and health.

Work from home

Workplace legislation also applies if the employee works in their own home, however, the Danish Working Environment Authority does not carry out inspections in private homes.

The requirements for the design of the home workplace for screen work can be found on the Danish Working Environment Authority's website, see below.

Working from home, for example, is a voluntary offer for all employees at DTU. If you have agreed with your manager that you often work from home, you can discuss with your manager what facilities DTU can provide. 

Responsibility and duties

The management’s responsibility 

The manager has a duty to ensure that employees can work from home in full compliance with health and safety requirements. The employer may allow employees to use their private equipment (desk, chair, monitor, keyboard, etc.) for screen work.

If the condition for regular working from home at a screen for more than two days a week has been met, this means, for example, that the employer must ensure that the employee has the necessary furniture and equipment available. In relation to the set-up of the home workstation, the employer must ensure that the employee has a desk and a chair that enable appropriate working positions and that there is an adjustable screen that is separate from the keyboard.

Regardless of how many days the employee works from home, however, DTU recommends at least one adjustable screen separated from the keyboard and a mouse, so that the employee can use appropriate working positions.

To ensure that the work from home is done in a safe and healthy set-up, it is particularly important that the manager is in an ongoing dialogue with the individual employee and follows up on the conditions for working from home. For this purpose, a DTU guideline for the above dialogue has been prepared, which can be found below.

The employee’s responsibility

Employees must actively contribute to ensuring that the home workstation is properly set up and that furniture and work equipment are used as intended, and that the work from home is otherwise performed in a fully safe and healthy manner. If employees become aware of conditions in their home which may impair safety or health and which they cannot correct themselves, they must notify theire manager or a member of the occupational health and safety organization.

Use the ergonomics ambassador

Most university units at DTU have assigned one or more ergonomics ambassadors. We encourage you to refer to these in relation to guidance on home workstation ergonomics.
A list of ergonomics ambassadors can be found here: Ergonomiambassadoeren

Inspiration for set-up of the home workstation

See what you should pay attention to for your home workstation in the videos in the box below. Here you can also be inspired by how simple measures in your home you can set up your workstation and have a more ergonomic workplace.

Work-related accidents at home workstation

When employees work from home, accidents may occur - just like in the ordinary workplace. If an injury occurs while the employee is at the ordinary workplace, there is in practice a presumption that the injury is an occupational injury.

If an injury occursin connection with working from home, there is not the same presumption that the injury occurred as a result of the work or the conditions under which the work is performed. The boundary between private and work-related conditions is more fluid when working from home. It may therefore be more difficult to determine whether this concerns a work-related accident that is covered by the Danish Workers’ Compensation Act (Arbejdsskadesikringsloven).

Activities that are in the nature of private errands do generally not have a natural or necessary connection to the work, for example:

• in connection with private chores, such as hanging up laundry, mowing the lawn, or walking the dog
• leaving home during normal working hours to do the shopping and sustaining an injury in this context

2. May 2025, the Supreme Court ruled in a workers' compensation case, in which a work injury was reported as a result of a fall at home while working from home.

The Supreme Court's ruling states, among other things, "that the employer is responsible for a healthy and safe working environment, also when the work takes place in the employee's home". It also states that, in the Supreme Court's opinion, the employer must, as part of the objective liability under the Workers' Compensation Act, bear the risk of injuries that occur as a result of the employee falling over his own objects during the performance of work from a home workplace, which have nothing to do with the work, but which are part of the home's interior."