What Health and Safety regulations
should I take notice of when taking on
self-employed persons?
Q. As a health and safety officer for a
large employer, what self-employed
people am I likely to work with?
A. Certain occupations are commonly
carried out by small, self-employed
businesses. These include window
cleaners, caterers, management
consultants (including health and safety
consultants), couriers, builders,
carpenters, decorators, electricians,
plumbers and so on. They may only be on
your premises for a matter of minutes,
or could be under a long-term contract,
eg up to a year. You must have
arrangements in place for controlling
them and ensuring their health and
safety while they are on your premises.
Q. I have noticed that our self-employed
window cleaner does not wear a safety
harness when working at height. Are we
responsible for making sure he wears
one?
A. Self-employed people are responsible
for identifying risks to themselves from
their activities, and providing
themselves with, and using, appropriate
personal protective equipment (PPE) .
The window cleaner should know that
there is a high risk of falling when
working at height, and should either
find a safe way of cleaning upper storey
windows or, if this is not possible,
wear a safety harness.
Having said that, you are responsible
for the health and safety of
non-employees on your site. As you are
paying for his services, you have a
degree of control over him. Your
premises should have anchor points for
window cleaners if it is not possible to
clean windows from the inside without
being at risk of falling. Consider the
effects on the workforce if the window
cleaner fell from his ladder and was
killed. Your contract with him should
require him to follow site safety rules,
and using PPE where necessary should be
one of these rules. If the window
cleaner persistently fails to wear his
safety harness this would breach such a
contract, and you should find someone
who takes a responsible attitude to
health and safety.
Q. I work as a casual kitchen hand for a
temporary agency. Who is my employer?
A. Many temporary agencies are set up so
they act as a job finder on behalf of
self-employed people. It is likely that
your agency considers you to be
self-employed, with all the health and
safety responsibilities that entails,
unless you have signed a contract of
employment with them. Whether or not you
would be classified as an employee of
the agency or as a self-employed person
in the event of a breach of health and
safety law depends on individual
circumstances, and can only really be
determined by a court.
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