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Page updated:
4 February 1997
Page owner:
ETO Site Team
Is there a difference between "Teleworking" and "Homeworking"?
(For a brief answer, see also "What is Telework about?")
The popular press, TV etc generally use the term "teleworker" to mean someone who works at home instead of commuting to an office. However "teleworking" can also include working at a local telecentre instead of commuting to a distant office, in which case the teleworker certainly isn't a "homeworker".
The International Labour Office (ILO) uses the term "traditional homeworkers" to denote people working at home on tasks like knitting or stuffing envelopes etc. and sees this as clearly distinct from "teleworkers". These kind of "traditional homeworkers" are sometimes called "outworkers" and generally are low paid and in insecure jobs or working on a piece work basis with no contract of employment. In contrast a teleworker may be a manager, a senior professional or another very highly paid and highly valued employee who finds it more convenient to work at or near home some of the time.
This distinction between "teleworker" and "homeworker"
may well become important in Europe, since there are moves to develop new
regulations to protect "homeworkers" against exploitation,which
might be very valuable to traditional homeworkers but be regarded as interfering
and restrictive by other kinds of teleworkers.
Author: Ian Simmins