Do you have a duty towards self-employed workers?
I’m talking about when you use freelancers, one-man bands (my terminology), or cards-in (my customer-friend’s terminology) all formally known as self-employed workers!
Well, obviously the answer is yes!
Self-employed do have more duty to protect themselves than employees would have but as you are ‘in control’ of their work you would have a duty of care.
(If you are just working along-side a self-employed person then whoever has brought them onto the project has the duty of care. Although we could argue that we all have a duty of care to each other, but that is probably another blog!)
What to do? Some simple steps …..
- Ensure that self-employed are competent (record you have checked), and include them in your project discussion and any site specific training
- Tell them what PPE they require and check that they wear it, and
- Share your project Risk Assessments and Safe Systems of Work with them.