DEFINING THE PROBLEM
As a host employer you may find yourself responsible for the safety and health of your workers, temporary workers provided by staffing agencies, and workers employed by other contractors or subcontractors, such as electrical contractors, machine installation or maintenance vendors, or long-term contractors that provide ongoing services such as building cleaning and maintenance. This can create several challenges and hazards for you and your workers, and contractors and their employees.
To keep it simple, we will be referring to contractors, subcontractors, and staffing agencies as “contractor/s” and their respective employees as “contractor employees”.
BOTTOM LINE
Managing contractors and avoiding liability for their safety violations can be complicated. But adopting the best practices for contractor management discussed in the Campbell Institute report can help you overcome some of the challenges.
Summary of 8 Best Practices
- Use of third-party prequalifying companies.
- Assessment of contractor safety statistics.
- Internal scale or checklist to assign grades to contractors during prequalification.
- Risk rating for work to be performed by contractor.
- Placing general contractors in charge of subcontractor safety and holding them to owner standards.
- Verification of contractor certifications and permits.
- On-site safety orientations.
- Periodic, scheduled assessments during contract term.
