Posted By Jason911 If you have a new work premises under construction and it is under control of the construction company, but your employees, most of them brand new, are required to go onto the site and work inside of the building. This is after the main construction has finished but there are plently of contractors still onsite including electricians/joiners and high level access workers using cherry pickers. There are also a few diggers and HGV's ect running about outside. A:Who is liable for an injury to one of your employees from a sub contractor using a cherry picker, considering that you as the employer are causing them to be there. Is it the contractor controlling the site, the sub contractor or the employer? B:Who is liable for an injury to a contractor or sub contractor caused by one of your employees operating for example a forklift truck? Would it be the contractor controlling the site, or you as the employer of the individual who caused the accident? C:Finally is it a simple case of the opposite being true when the contruction company hands over control of the site to the employer, but contractors are still onsite? Oh dear, that sounds like a Nebosh exam question doesn't it. It's not though, honest!

Posted By Ken Dickson Jason, Please mix this with other opinion you get. If the project has not reached practical completion (i.e. not handed over, CDM still applies), the Principal Contractor has overall responsibility for safety on the construction site. He should be requiring your staff to sign in and out of the site, and should be coordinating activities and risk control. He should also have method statements from you for the work you are doing. Although it will be your permanent workplace in the future, at present you are a subcontractor on the site, and should be subject to the normal level of control. Liability in the case of an incident would be spread about like paint. The Principal Contractor would normally take the greatest proportion, with other contractors involved taking their share. When the building is formally handed over that changes to put you at the top of the liability chain and would move the (ex) Principal Contractor down a peg or two during snagging works. Ken