Same here, it wont stand up if their predominant supply is labour.
For instance, a bobcat guy rocks up to move logs and scrape the joint, hurts himself, well too bad it's his problem as he brought machinery along.
Contract climber hurts himself ... it's your problem as he's deemed an employee. He brings saws, lowering rope, friction device etc but work cover wrote me and said it's not considered significant machinery and his predominant supply is labour ... climbing the tree.
But from a liability point of view if he breaks something it could hold water ... he better have his own liability insurance just in case because between your company and his company some-one's paying. I dare say your company would take his company on if it was a significant claim.
But this takes me back to the fallen crane at Carrara Gold Coast. Arborist cuts too big a lump off and the wrong direction, crane tips over and boom cuts house in half.
Ended up after court that the crane copped the bill and claim. This was IMHO the wrong outcome as the climber determined the weight by where he was cutting and should have asked at that boom length what was safe. However the court ruled that the crane operator is solely responsible for the lift and should have directed the arborist as to what was the right amount. It is ultimately up to the crane driver what he attempts to lift. Since then it has been hard to get cranes doing tree jobs especially on the Gold Coast as no-one knows exactly what a tree weighs and how secure the tie in point is.
Interesting stuff. |