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CWU NW Safety Forum Respond To HSE Consultation On Self Employed Exemption As most people already know form the media, the government are exempting self-employed people from all Health and Safety regulations. What the media has not made clear is that the HSE is consulting over this issue before making changes to the appropriate legislation. Firms who employ people on the basis that they are ‘self-employed’ and not directly employed by them, are already simply accepting that self employed people are already simply exempt, full stop! So too do some self-employed people who are ignorant of the consultation exercise. Chris Ingram, Unionsafety Web Editor explains one experience he had illustrating this: “In politely challenging a small company erecting scaffolding on the pavement of a main road, with a lack of any sign posting for pedestrians or traffic, and forcing pedestrians to walk underneath their work area or walk into the oncoming traffic, I received the following response: “F off mate. We work for ourselves and all that Health and Safety shit doesn’t affect us!”
Derek found that whilst there are areas in the consultation document’s proposals which can be agreed, the Forum’s conclusion to the proposals is pretty well condemning of the idea that self-employed people can be made exempt from their current obligation to abide by the appropriate legislation which cover their activities. This view is illustrated by the Forum’s response to the following questions in the consultation document: Q2. From the definitions for work activities in the Regulations, do you think someone who is self-employed would know if the law applied to them or not? The removal / change will lead to confusion and the current legislation is sufficiently clear. Q3. In the Impact Assessment in Annex 2 of the consultation documentwe have made a number of assumptions. Do you have comments aboutany of these? If so, please enter them below. We have concern that reliance on the European obligation to retain the general duty on self employed (such as Council Directive 92/57/EEC) may be meaningless if there is a political will to exempt much of such duties by the current, or subsequent, UK Governments. Q4. Self-employed people will need to know if the law applies to themor not. How best do you think HSE can achieve this clarity (e.g. webbased guidance etc)? There are more self employed than ever before and to target them all will vary according to their work styles. Many self employed will have little time to access web based guidance unless specifically driven there. Public campaigns such as previous HSE ones (ie Hidden Killer) may drive them to web based guidance. You can download the full response document here and from the E-Library Database Source: Derek Maylor / Unionsafety |
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Derek Maylor, on behalf of the CWU North West Health And Safety Forum has responded to the consultation document which was specific in its Yes/No format questionnaire.