Scaffolder Insurance / Agency work (1 Viewer)

MorganLaw

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Gents,
I was talking with one of my insurers regarding Public Liability cover and Employers Liability Insurance in respect of Agency workers.

This is a grey area and i think will need clarifcation on who covers who?

the conversation we had was with a scaffold company who advised all their sub contract / agency staff were insured by the labour supply agency (or payroll agency) and needed to take our their own Public liability policies. this is slightly incorrect - please see comments below exchanged between insurer and myself (broker)

"It's not unheard of... It all depends on the insurance policy that the agency has AND the contracts that the agency has in place between a) the subbies and b) the scaffolding company (end hirer)

However regardless of that your right in what you say- the law normally always reverts back to the direction, supervision and control of the subbies...which will lay with the end scaffolding firm if liability arises....

If the agency employees the scaffs simply to do their tax and NI then they sound more like a payroll/umbrella company and my expertise would suggest that if that is the case, their policy wouldn't adequately cover the subbies for EL as it's nothing less than a 'tax efficent' way of trading and avoiding the agency worker regulations passed in october. Liability will revert back to the firm regardless of contracts in place then.

only two ways I can help you is get the name of the agency and I will see if it's one of ours or get your hands on the policy document from the agency.... or just do what I would do and recommend that the scaffolding firm buys adequate PL&EL cover!
"

I hope this helps any firm or individual - any thoughts let me know.
 
So what you saying morgan is anyone using agency workers that want to ensure they are fully protected should indeed get their own policy to cover pl and el and if necessary negotiate prices for labour only and not labour with insurance yeah.
 
So what you saying morgan is anyone using agency workers that want to ensure they are fully protected should indeed get their own policy to cover pl and el and if necessary negotiate prices for labour only and not labour with insurance yeah.

first things first is to check the agreement with you and the agency - and also their insurance cover is adequate; however to ensure you are covered correctly, as not having sufficient Employers Liability cover will result in a fine and or imprisonment - i would suggest you get it covered yourself.

An example of an incident would be:

an Employee works for ABC Scaffolding Ltd, they have adequate EL & PL in place for him and their other staff. 123 scaffolding Ltd need to 'borrow' a gang from ABC scaffolding and a contract is drawn up between the two firms.

the employee then falls from 123 Scaffolding Ltd's scaffold and sustains injuries. who would be responsible? who's Insurance company would be targetted?
A court or independant body would rule that the supervision or direction was performed by 123 Scaffolding Ltd, the erection of scaffold was also the responsiblity of 123 scaffolding ltd and therefore, they would be held accountable.
 
try northern alliance insurance brokers, I found them useful. I was going to post a link but i think I may be forbidden. Anyways just google them

---------- Post added at 03:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:46 PM ----------

or simply business they are good too
 
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