The employers engaged contractors to repair a building. The employers were going to buy new asbestos sheets for the purpose but the contractors offered to remove some from an adjacent disused factory. The employers obtained the permission of the owner. Their projects manager inspected the site with the contractors and warned them to be careful. They offered to supply the contractors with equipment. One of the contractors fell through a skylight on the roof of the disused building and was killed. The employers were charged under section 3(1) and the justices convicted. They said that it was not necessary for the employers to control the site on which the work was done to be liable. They were in a position to give specific instructions to the contractors as to how the work should be carried on. They therefore owed a duty under section 3(1).
Held: The conviction was set aside. The court was ‘unable to accept that the mere capacity or opportunity to exercise control over an activity is enough to bring that activity within the ambit of the employer’s conduct of his undertaking. Before he can say that an activity is within his conduct of his undertaking, the employer must, in my judgment, either exercise some actual control over it or be under a duty to do so. If the principal chooses to leave the independent contractor to do the work in the way he thinks fit, I consider that the work is not within the ambit of the principal’s conduct of his undertaking. It is wholly the contractor’s undertaking.’
Judges:
Smith J
Citations:
Times 08-Feb-1994, [1994] 4 All ER 1037
Statutes:
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 3(1)
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Doubted – Regina v Associated Octel Ltd HL 14-Nov-1996
The appellants operated a chemical plant. When the plant was shut down for its annual maintenance, an independent firm repaired a tank lining. An employee of that firm was working by electric light. He had to clean the tank with acetone and resin. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Health and Safety
Updated: 28 April 2022; Ref: scu.88794