Contractors

The presence of a contractor presents a range of potential risks. Contractors may not be aware of the special hazards that exist at your company’s premises or may create new risks through the work they carry out.

The term contractor applies to an individual or organisation that visits your premises in order to carry our work. This includes people from building contractors and equipment engineers to cleaning contractors and telephone or photocopier engineers.

When you hire a contractor you must select competent firms. It is important you formally establish the competence of the contractor and assess their ability to carry out the work required. In addition you should ensure that they have sufficient insurance protection.

How can these risks be managed?

• Contractors should be given a briefing about the particular hazards of your workplace, especially anything that they would not expect to find
• Establish details about the contractors work to ensure any risk can be identified and managed

This will not be a major task for certain contractors such as a photocopier engineer. However, a major plant installation could result in a number of hazards that must be managed to reduce the risk to your employees.

The Management of Contractors

A ‘Contractor’ is defined, as any external company who is attending site to complete practical work.

Sales representatives, consultants and other personnel employed by external companies who are visiting site for the purpose of meetings, negotiations and surveys not requiring practical intervention are deemed to be ‘visitors’. These personnel should be accompanied at all times.

Pre-Tender/Pre-appointment

There are a number of steps that need to be followed before contractors are selected and work can commence.

Selection:

This involves ensuring that the contractor(s) invited to tender are competent and able to carry out the work required. Once selected they can be added to a list of “approved contractors” for use on future contracts.

The selection of suitable contractors should consider the following:

• Proof of Competence e.g. membership of trade/professional associations; testimonials from previous clients
• Qualifications of key employees – both trade/professional and health and safety qualifications
• Insurance cover – Both Employers and Public Liability (with adequate levels of indemnity, especially for Public Liability)
• Safety Policy
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• Safety Performance e.g. details of accident rates

Before specific contracts are placed it is essential that you obtain a detailed Method Statement from the contractor. This should outline exactly how the work is to be undertaken and identify significant risk for both their own and your employees.

Pre-start Induction

All the following should be discussed with the contractor’s management, and perhaps their employees, before work commences.

• Site Access/Egress including Security
• Work Area (and out of bounds areas)
• Workplace Transport including Parking
• Supervision – how will contractor’s employees be supervised?
• Safety Induction for contractor’s employees
• Permit to work Procedures e.g. Hot Work, Electrical Work, and Excavations
• Method Statements – especially for significant work such as Lifting Operations, Electrical Work
• Entry into Confined Spaces
• Welfare Arrangements
• First Aid, Accidents Reporting & Investigation
• Fire Precautions & Emergency Procedures
• Housekeeping
• Safety Rules
• Site Rules e.g. speed limits, smoking, protective equipment

The pre-start investigations may be easily accomplished with the aid of a checklist, to ensure all the specific issues are covered and identify any specific actions required of the contractor (e.g. not digging without a permit).