Posted By Chris Black Fats Everything depends on the contracts he has with the individual. My Company has contract staff who are either fully paid memebrs of staff of the agency, Freelance individuals who work for their own company but who pay a fee to the agent for finding them work or "casual" workers who are classed as self-employed but not through their own company. Only the first mentioned could be classed as an employee thereby forcing your friend to develop arrangements to protect his health and safety, however there are other factors to consider. The third mentioned would be in a position where the agency has to make basic arrangments on his behalf based upon what is reasonably forseeable and practicable. I would advise that your friend develops and implements a policy and supporting safety management arrangements. An agency was successfully prosecuted jointly with their client for a range of breaches resulting in the death of an engineer working on a rail contract last year. I forgot the details but I believe it centred on the competency of the individual and communication over control measures, I am sure someone else out their has proper details to share. A reputable agency would now be expected to take the lead and agree safety management arrangements with a client in advance of making a placement and I now recieve one or two communications per month on this. if your friend is serious about the business and cares about the people who will make his money for him then he should be writing the policy and developing supporting arrangements in advance.

Posted By fats van den raad Chris Thanks for your reply. It supports my own opinion as well. Frank Thank you as wel for your comment. I consider my wrist now firmly slapped! However, I have tried to search for a discussion specifically relation to H&S policies in employment agencies without success. Maybe I'm just too dumb to find it or it may even be that there isn't one. Whichever of the two is true, seeing as I personally have no experience in the employment supply industry sector, I thought it may be worth while asking for some advice. May I be so forward as to suggest that you may want to consider just not replying to posts that you find annoying in future, instead of elevating your blood pressure by making a caustic reply. If I have misinterpretd your reply I humbly apologise. As I said, I'm sometimes stoopid, me