An electrician is now facing charges for deliberately tampering with the building site’s main switchboard immediately after a young man died due to electrocution.

We often hear that managing contractors is extremely difficult, and that there is uncertainty surrounding the extent of the clients obligations. We also hear that some organisations feel contractors are not their responsibility and they are also unaware that this is not true. In this article we explain some strategies for managing contractors in a way that will reduce the burden and mitigate your risk.

In this article we look at the Labour Hire conundrum and identify the WHS requirements associated with the management and control of personnel hired through a labour hire agency.

The OH&S acts do not distinguish between your responsibilities to your employees, contractors or visitors. If you are in control of your workplace, you must be in control of your visitors. Here we suggest some time proven effective measures, which you should apply to all your visitors, for the duration of their visit to your workplace. You need to ensure that visitors are aware of their responsibilities and that visits are properly inducted so as to ensure visitors do not inadvertently cause any harm to themselves or your personnel.