Posted By Barry Cooper
Advice wanted.

The company I work for has a very small maintenance dept. Because of this, when the production process is shutdown, we bring in contractors to do the majority of the maintenance work.
The companies we use have a limited number of employees, and so will bring in additional men to do the work. These men are self employed and don't tend to have liability insurance. The contractor says they are covered by his insurance.

The terms of the contract are that we will pay the contractor a set hourly rate and we decide what the men do, and we basically manage them whilst on site.

The contractor has all the necessary insurance, but in the past, when an accident has occurred the self employed persons end up making a claim against my company as we are a major company.

I am more concerned that in the event of an accident, because we are the controlling company we would be liable to prosecution. I believe it is our responsibility for risk assessments etc.

Am I right in my assumptions, or would the liability be the contracting company?
Are there court cases that demonstrate who's liability it is?

Posted By Jonathan Sandler CMIOSH
I agree with Paul, what control measures have your contractors in place to assess the compentency of their contractors? How do you manage and control your contractors.
Is any of the works being carried out either under CDM? Electricity at Work Regs?
Regards

Posted By George Wedgwood
Yes, both have responsibilities and it will be important to demonstrate that both employers have met and discussed H&S planning for the operations as well as clearly understanding 'boundary issues' such as roles, responsibilities for what; how both and the self-employed deal with contingencies and each other; - remember that the self-employed may not be used to working a part of a team and that needs to figure in discussions as to how best to get them to coordinate activities, to ensure safety during their respective tasks(do you know what those tasks are and what competences are required for them?).

In the event of breach, both employers will generally be prosecuted and even the self-employed person involved may too (if they are not so seriuously injured that a judge thinks they have been punished enough!). In my experience, the fines would be proportional to the recognised responsibility and 50/50 is not uncommon.

Simple things work best for contractors so ensure that regular toolbox talks are held, a safety rep is appointed, weekly or more frequent H&S meetings are held - these can be held just before the project management meetings - and ensure that H&S is represented at project meetings. Have a list of things to check off (HSE guidance) for the contractor to assure you of and for you to do to ensure that the interface is managed well. Set out minimum standards for their performance and ensure all incidents get reported and investigated. Develop a friendly client 'face' about the works so that all employed there know that the client is serious about H&S. Instigate regular check audits that address the agreed performance indicators as well as the high risk compliance issues. make sure that someone with the contractor understands H&S if not actually competent to manage it on site throughout the project.

Above all, accept the responsibility and manage it well - you owe that to your contractor!

Posted By Bill Parkinson
Having worked in a power generation setting when we had a shutdown (3-5 days every 18 months) there were a significant number of contractors on site.

One thing you need to remember is that the client company has a responsibility for anyone working on their site and therefore you have control over what they should be doing.

We used the CDM regs to good effect in that all contractors were inducted by us irrespective of who they were working for. We therefore laid the ground rules and made sure that the on site health and safety plan was kept upto date and made available to anyone with a query. We also had a morning and afernoon meeting (30 mins max) to look at any issues (e.g. authorisation of those receiving permits) or incident and also look at the work planned for the next day and where any risks identified which were not always covered.

We only had 1 incident in 3 years which was where a sub contractor was brought onto site who could not read or understand english and so was a significant risk. He was sent away and the company involved received a warning that they would be thrown off site in the event of recurrence.

The benefit we found was that the work was done more quickly and shortened the shutdown and saved money !!

Also remember some words from a HSE Inspector working in the Construction Division which was tell them what they can and cannot do and enforce it as you are liable anyway !!

Regards

Bill Parkinson CMIOSH