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Edward Jelliss
Member - 2 posts
The government is looking at agency employee’s rights but can anyone tell me what the agency’s duties are regarding the health and safety training of their staff.
My company quite often uses agency staff in the position of porters, sometimes for very short periods of one or two days. I have put a procedure in place to ensure that agency staff are advised of all the risks they may face at their place of work, and the emergency procedures etc. However due to their short period of employment with us we do not have time to put the agency employee through the manual handling training that we provide for our permanent staff.
Is it reasonable for me to expect that when requesting an agency to supply a porter (who’s job is lifting things), to arrive on site having been trained by the agency in manual handling techniques?
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James Fairchild
Member - 210 posts
Yes in short.... though you should cover this off in writing.
I guess this depends on how easy it would be to infer a contract (between the worker and your company).
For example, if you have some workers from accountants Ernst & Young on your premises for a few days, noone would think for a minute that they were your employee for those few days.
If on the other hand you have an office temp with you for several months, doing work as part of your team, then this would be more likely.
Perhaps some of the Health & Safety chaps can advise who would/should have to put Employers Liability Insurance in place to cover these "grey area" people? I expect that would lead to the answer to your question.
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