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Posted By NCL
A quickie.
If a British company employs British workers to work abroad do they have to adhere to British H&S legislation still?
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Posted By Rob T
Hi NCL,
The answer is not necessarily but it becomes a lot more complicated than that. If the "Controlling Voice" is in the UK, under civil law (and Private International Law, orConflict of Laws for instance), the more stringent requirements in negligence may be used e.g. UK law against Yemeni or Afghan etc. There is absolutely no UK (HSE) criminal law (not including Off-shore rigs in UK waters) enforcement abroad with the exception (probably - still to be tested in Court of Appeal) of a need to do a risk assessment.
All that said - I would advise you to follow the spirit of UK law when people are abroad but to use the local criminal law as an absolute minimum (in some parts of the old British Empire they still have safety law based on the Factories Act 61 or 37 etc. depending on when they got independance).
If you are sending people for short term trips i.e. not contracted to work full time abroad, you will need to be more careful and should take into account living accommodation and possibly hostile environments if necessary as well.
Not a very good answer in this short piece but do e-mail me direct if you want more.
Rob Todd CFIOSH
Committee Member of the IOSH International Specialist Group and spokesman for Hostile Environments
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Posted By johnwaterson2773
Hi NCL,
When I was serving in HM Forces and we were working abroad we worked to UK Legislation, and that included our Local Nationals (LN's).
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Posted By Dan Malone
Hi there,
You MUST comply with the law of the conuntry that you are working in.
If there is any prosecutions made they will be in that countrys court and not in the UK. There might al so be further prosecutions may at a later date in the UK.
In Ireland you must comply with the 2005 Safety Health and Welfare at Work act first. Then use the UK legislation.
I work for a US mulitnational where they try to get us to use the OSHA rules. I have argued this and had it backed up by the Health and Safety Authority (www.hsa.ie) that they will look for compliance of the Irish law and not the US law.
Regards
Dan
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Posted By Merv Newman
I too have worked for a US company in Europe. Which means you have two levels of reporting and statistics. FIRST above all is to local standards. You are in their country. They will do you if you get it wrong.
SECOND is to US/OSHA standards. They cant actually do you, legally, for not respecting OSHA but they could fire you.
LOCAL law will decide if the firing was justified. Not US law. Maybe if you are still employed/paid by your UK employer you could argue your case in the old bailey.
So, in reality, LOCAL law primes.
I've worked in a few African countries. Ex colonies of France, UK, Germany, Belgium. Their laws still have relics of the original colonising countries but they can be 10 or even 20 years behind. (nobody north of south Africa has heard of hasawa)
But, whatever. Have an accident in Niger or Chad or Mali, the police will come and get you under THEIR laws.
And isn't that just fun.
You do not want to see (or smell) the holding cell.
Done that once when the electrician's brother (not an electrician) got the wiring wrong. And there was a dead donkey just down the road.
Funfunfun
14 hours waiting for the next plane out with a dead donkey under your nose and I would be instantly arrested if I went back.
Yeah haaa !
H&S is SO much fun
Merv
Is this Monday ?
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