Rank: Forum user 
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I'm reviewing our subcontractor questionniare and it has come to light that we are using a number of contractors who are labour only subcontractors. I don't want to have two seperate questionniares and was looking to create one that would be applicable to both Bona Fide and Labour Only subcontractors. The only question I think will differ are the following;
Do you have a health and safety policy? YES/NO If No do you agree to adopt ours.
Do you provide Method Statements and Risk Assessments for the works that you undertake? YES/NO If No do you agree to comply with ours. Are there any other questions that I should be specifically asking a labour only subcontractor? Any advice/feedback would be much appreciated Martin
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Rank: Forum user
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It's in my personal opinion that "labour only contractors"/operatives should be able to to demonstrate sufficient training in areas such as PPE, manual handling, work at height, etc and rightfully as you say along with risk assessments and method statements but it is also extremely important that the workers are supervised and where applicable are given instruction.
Such questions that I would be asking are:
Training and qualifications
Risk assessments along with your disclaimer
Method statements/Safe Systems of Work along with your disclaimer
Who manages the H&S of the employees for the contracting company
Medical/health declarations for various ailments including disability and impairments
Some organisations just state "how do you manage the QHS&E of employees which is broad so I would initially be looking at the above. If I have missed any off then I'm sure other posts will follow to include the areas.
Regards
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Will they be supplying their own tools? If so are they PAT tested/ inspected?
And how about insurance?
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Rank: Forum user
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Good points already raised, I can offer the following anecdote that is vaguely relevant, I was involved in remediation works for a company following a fatality of one their labour only employed subcontractors, the HSE investigation treated the deceased as an employee of the hiring firm for the pruposes of the on site incident. I think a lot depends on who is providing the management and supervision, if all managers are employed by you directly, I would be inclined that a lesser check based on the individuals competence would be sufficient so training, experience etc. With regard to policies, SSoW, RAMS, CoSHH etc. I would anticipate that the contractors will be working to your arrangements so would not need anything more from them regarding that, I would argue that consistute the "reasonable enquiries" you are required to make under CDM.
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Rank: Super forum user
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I agree with fhunter and worry about the term labour only subcontractors. If you have sufficient control over them they will be deemed as employees under H&S legislation and should be treated as such
I would firstly establish this.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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I think it will depend how you engage labour only contractors. If, as I suspect, it is through agencies supplying contigent labour then these people will be self-employed to all intent and purpose. Will they have RAMS, H&S Policy or dare I say suitable PPE? Well, you know the answer to that one!
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Rank: Forum user
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Originally Posted by: WatsonD  Will they be supplying their own tools? If so are they PAT tested/ inspected?
And how about insurance?
They would only supply small hand tools, everything else would be provided for by the company (mainly hired) their insurance details would be checked but given they are labour only subcontractors they would come under our insurance and be treated as an employee.
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Rank: Forum user
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Originally Posted by: fhunter Good points already raised, I can offer the following anecdote that is vaguely relevant, I was involved in remediation works for a company following a fatality of one their labour only employed subcontractors, the HSE investigation treated the deceased as an employee of the hiring firm for the pruposes of the on site incident. I think a lot depends on who is providing the management and supervision, if all managers are employed by you directly, I would be inclined that a lesser check based on the individuals competence would be sufficient so training, experience etc. With regard to policies, SSoW, RAMS, CoSHH etc. I would anticipate that the contractors will be working to your arrangements so would not need anything more from them regarding that, I would argue that consistute the "reasonable enquiries" you are required to make under CDM.
I've always viewed labour only subcontractors as our own employees, they should be inducted and have their competence checked before underatking any work and all work undertaken will have been risk assessed by company managers who provide RAM's to the labour only subcontractors. With regard to management and supervision we have in some cases labour only contractors who supervise their own works, in these cases we'd again look at them like our own employees and would expect them to demonstrate suitable qualifications such as SSSTS or SMSTS
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Rank: Forum user
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Originally Posted by: Alfasev I agree with fhunter and worry about the term labour only subcontractors. If you have sufficient control over them they will be deemed as employees under H&S legislation and should be treated as such
I would firstly establish this.
They will always be viewed in the same way as a direct employee to the business
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Rank: Forum user
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Originally Posted by: RayRapp I think it will depend how you engage labour only contractors. If, as I suspect, it is through agencies supplying contigent labour then these people will be self-employed to all intent and purpose. Will they have RAMS, H&S Policy or dare I say suitable PPE? Well, you know the answer to that one!
we use labour only subcontractors directly. For example we use labour only sprinkler fitters, we supply all their equipment, tools, materials, PPE, drawings, RAMS and they are managed by our project engineer, the labour only subcontractor will consist of a supervisor/foreman and maybe one or two operatives.
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Rank: Forum user
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Originally Posted by: garyclarke84 It's in my personal opinion that "labour only contractors"/operatives should be able to to demonstrate sufficient training in areas such as PPE, manual handling, work at height, etc and rightfully as you say along with risk assessments and method statements but it is also extremely important that the workers are supervised and where applicable are given instruction.
Such questions that I would be asking are:
Training and qualifications
Risk assessments along with your disclaimer
Method statements/Safe Systems of Work along with your disclaimer
Who manages the H&S of the employees for the contracting company
Medical/health declarations for various ailments including disability and impairments
Some organisations just state "how do you manage the QHS&E of employees which is broad so I would initially be looking at the above. If I have missed any off then I'm sure other posts will follow to include the areas.
Regards
when engaging with our labour only subcontractors we would alsways ascertain that they have the correct qualifications and are competent to undertake the work and in cases if they are supervising their own works we'd require them to have suitable qualifications to demonstrate that they are competent to do so, this would be SSSTS
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