When we hire a contractor we tend to assume they have all the right insurances and licensing, certainly their licence number is probably written on the side of their work ute, for a small job around the house we might decide checking up on their qualifications and insurance really isn’t necessary.
But what if we had to get someone in for a big job? Like building some extensions? At the very least you’d want to ensure their public liability insurance was up to date and they were licensed.
Which is all quite fine around home, but what if you were running a farm or a business (or maybe contracting someone to work on public land)? Under those circumstances things change and you could fall under the category of what is known in Work Health and Safety legislation as a “Person Conducting a Business or Undertaking” (PCBU), in those cases things get a little more complex. Under those circumstances a PCBU has an obligation to ensure contractors and staff comply with work health and safety procedures, often we’ll ignore it and take a “she’ll be right” attitude or don’t bring it up with the contractors as it could be seen as being rude but a good contractor should already have those procedures in place and be ready to help you with compliance.
Site induction by you, showing known hazards and evacuation points as well as phone numbers and addresses of emergency services and local medical services as well as any standard procedures you undertake on site is a good start.
Apart from that your contractor should provide you with:
● Copies of relevant licences and certifications
● Copy of certificate of currency of insurance
● Copy of safe work method statements
● Copy of signed site inductions
If your contractor won’t supply these then you should consider another contractor.
For further information https://www.safework.nsw.gov.au/