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It would be nice to place the blame on backward antipodean safety practices, but in fact it's an issue that many UK companies are dealing with as well. The issue is not really one of negligence, on either the employer or the contractor's part, but one of poor information exchange. The answer is simply to put into place systems that enable automated collection and management of the information needed to determine if a contracting company and its employees are compliant. Determining Competence The Health & Safety Executive publication, Use of Contractors, a Joint Responsibility, sates that, In any client/contractor relationship, both parties will have duties under health and safety law. Similarly, if the contractor employs sub-contractors to carry out some or all of the work, all parties will have some health and safety responsibilities. The extent of the responsibilities of each party will depend on the circumstances. A contractor management system that incorporates a comprehensive contractor induction solution enables you to cover the exchange of compliance and safety related information in both directions. A comprehensive induction system enables you to educate contractors on anything that may affect their safety while working for you, as well establish your commitment to workplace safety. You contractor management system will help you guarantee that your contractors already have a commitment to safety and that they are up to date will all legal requirements and have the competence to safely carry out the required work. A Rule to Work By: Accept all health and safety responsibility for your contractors safety . It can be a dangerous practice to make any assumptions about your contracting companies, no matter how long your relationship with them may be. Yet high levels of trust that have no basis in actual concrete knowledge are very common. If you take it upon yourself to protect the safety of your contractors, you need to make real steps towards understanding the levels of responsibility that they bring into your health and safety workplace . So where do you start. The above mentioned Health & Safety Executive publication will help you establish the right mind-set as you approach your contractor management. You'll then need to build an automated contractor management system - or better yet, buy one! There are some great solutions on the market today. There are even companies that provide solutions that enable you to combine your contractor induction and contractor management safety solutions into one package. Having that streamlined process and combined exchange of safety related information can be a very powerful tool in creating strong and reliable practice for establishing workplace compliance. It will also enable you to improve the workplace safety of your contractors. After all, at the end of the day, that's what it's really all about.
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