Unit 5a: Employers' Liability Flashcards
Employer’s common law duty
From Wilsons & Clyde Coal Co Ltd v English [1937], the duties are to take reasonable steps to provide:
- competent staff
- adequate material
- a proper system of work and supervision.
Fourth duty from Latimer v AEC Ltd:
- provide a safe place of work.
Personal nature of the employer’s duty
Non-delegable. There is a personal relationship. Employer cannot say they delegated its performance to someone else.
Competent staff
Hudson v Ridge Manufacturing Co Ltd. Employer in this case knew about the risk Mr Chadwick was posing to fellow staff.
Duty arises not from merely an incompetent worker but rather that the employer knows or ought to know the risk a particular worker is posing to other workers. Can be psychological as well as physical, Waters v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis.
Adequate plant and equipment
Relevant when: employer provides equipment but it is inadequate; and when an employer does not supply all of the equipment needed.
Employer’s Liability (Defective Equipment) Act 1969. Employee can sue the employer directly and not the manufacturer for defective equipment provided: fault on the part of someone; causation. Only covers employees.
Safe system of work
Safe workplace needed. Stress at work is also part of this. As seen in Walker v Northumberland County Council. Guidelines given by Hatton v Sutherland: first consider nature and extent of work done by the employee, second signs from the employee themselves. Employer entitled to take what an employee told it at face value. Must be reasonably foreseeable.
Defences for an employer
Volenti, though this is rarely successful as it is difficult to show that the employee freely consented to run the risk of injury caused by the employer’s negligence.
Contributory negligence. Allowances made for employees working in noisy conditions, doing repetitive work.
