Employers' Liability Flashcards
What are the duties of an employer to an employee?
To take reasonable steps to provide:
Competent staff;
Adequate material (ie plant, equipment and machinery);
A proper system of work and supervision; and
A safe place of work.
Can an employer’s duty be delegated?
No. It is a non-delegable duty
What is the duty to provide the employee with competent fellow workers?
The duty to provide competent staff will not therefore arise merely from the fact that a worker is incompetent. Rather, it arises where an employer knows, or ought to know, about the risk a particular worker is posing to fellow workers.
When is the duty to provide adequate plant and equipment relevant?
Where an employer does provide plant and/ or equipment to his employees but it is inadequate in some way.
Where an employer does not in fact supply all the plant and equipment needed for the job.
What does the duty to provide adequate plant and equipment require?
An employer must provide all necessary equipment and maintain it to a safe standard.
What is the effect of the Employer’s Liability (Defective Equipment) Act 1969?
Where inherent defects to plant and equipment CAUSE harm to the employee and are the FAULT of the manufacturer or supplier, the employee can simply sue the employer for breach of its duty to provide adequate plant and equipment.
What does the duty to provide a safe system of work include?
The physical lay-out of the job.
The sequence in which the work is carried out.
The provision of training, warnings, notices, safety equipment and the issue of special instructions.
What reasonable steps must an employer take to ensure that a safe system of work is complied with?
providing adequate training to employees in the operation of the new system;
ensuring the employees are supervised, at least at the outset;
monitoring the operation of the system to ensure it is being fully complied with; and
taking disciplinary action against any employee who fails to comply with the system.
Does the duty to provide a safe system of work extend beyond the workplace?
Yes
Does the duty to provide a safe system of work extend to an employee who has suffered stress as a result of work?
Yes
When is a duty of care owed to an employee who has suffered stress at work?
Where injury to health through stress at work is reasonably forseeable
How can stress be reasonably forseeable?
Where the workload is obviously too demanding in terms of type or amount.
There was a high degree of absenteeism or sickness in the relevant department.
An employer is generally
entitled to assume an employee was up to the normal pressures of the job and was entitled to take what an employee told it at face value.
How do the characteristics of individual employees impact the employer’s breach of duty?
Employers are required to take extra precautions for an employee’s special conditions only if the employer is aware of those conditions.
How do statutory health and safety regulations impact the determination of breach of duty?
Precautions which are required by statutory health and safety regulations are likely to be regarded as a guide to the standard which a reasonable employer ought to meet.
