Employers Responsibilities
for Employees Working
Abroad
A Gentle Reminder
RESPONSIBILITIES




Questions
Who is responsible for the personnel e.g. Students
and Experimenters sent abroad or allowed to go
abroad by your respective institute or university?
Does the person responsible know they are working
safely or in a safe environment or have they assumed
this to be the case?
What are they working with? High Voltage or High
Current, Flammable Gases etc.
The Legal Position 1









UK Common Law Duties of the Employer
To take reasonable care to protect his employees
from foreseeable injury
To do what is reasonable in the circumstances
This may mean to provide:Safe Systems of Work and Safe Place of Work
Safe equipment and tools
Safe and competent fellow employees
Instruction on necessary precautions
Indicating the risks if precautions are not followed
The Legal Position 2




Vicarious Liability
The employer can be held liable for the actions of
his employees causing death, injury or damage to
others, providing these actions were committed in
the course of his employment
Employees
have a general duty of care towards themselves
and to others
The Legal Position



Judicial Precedent
A decided case (Cook v. Square D Ltd) has stated
that ; Where a number of employees were working
abroad or one or two were working abroad for a
considerable time, that the employer might want
to inspect the site and satisfy himself that his
employees were working in safe conditions and
working safely.
The Legal Position




Employee Abroad - Application of British Law
A more recent case ( Johnson V. Coventry Churchill
International where injury was suffered whilst
working abroad), decided that as his employers were
responsible for salary and income tax matters and that
employment had not been transferred to the overseas
place of work.
The employers were bound by British Common Law
“duty of care” and had breached this duty.
It was decide that Britain had the most significant
relationship with the accident and British law applied
The Legal Position



Criminal Law
UK criminal law e.g. Health and Safety at Work
etc. Act 1974 and Safety Regulations have no
jurisdiction outside the UK.
Local Criminal Law applies, this may differ from
Country to Country and in the USA even from
State to State
Criminal Law


Failure to heed the guidance set out in Guidance
Notes and Approved Codes of Practice can be
looked on as very bad practice and may be used in
evidence in any proceedings
This guidance may be in the form of European,US
or International Standards or protocols
The Legal Position







Employers should satisfy themselves that they have
considered
The safety of the workplace itself
The safety of the buildings
The level of employee experience
The type of work to be done and level of risk of injury
The amount of control an employer can reasonably
exercise
The employers knowledge of the condition of the place
of work
Measures for UK Personnel



Annual visits to CERN, DESY, Fermilab, SLAC,
Soudan and sometimes to SNO by a member of
RAL Health and Safety Group with a member of
RAL PPD Safety Panel.
A report on the findings of the visit is written
and submitted to the RAL PPD Safety Panel
Any shortcomings are highlighted and a request
for remedy of the situation is sent to the relevant
person(s)
Concerns






Concerns
RAL has virtually no contact with any university
Safety Officer or responsible person
University Safety Officers rarely visit overseas sites
Are universities aware of what their employees
students etc are involved in day to day?
Some experimenters have never even been to the
universities that they are employed by
Some students have no supervisor at that site or even
in that country
Options for UK




Make available to a specified person in each
university/facility Safety Office a copy of the visit
report highlighting areas where some improvements
are needed.
A meeting with all university/facility safety officers at
RAL to set out the measures in place at the moment
and any suggestions for future developments
Ensure UK Liaison Officers draw attention to safety
requirements of the host laboratory of facility
including safety training and documentation
Carry out host facility safety training at RAL or home
site
Concerns


Time when not at work, not really concern
of host institute but possibly concern of
home institute if there is a problem
Where they live when at host institute.
Young people want to live where “it is all
happening”
Concerns



Medical cover for illness and injury.
Not really a problem in Europe as most
countries have reciprocal medical treatment
scheme via the form E111, soon to be the
European Medical Card
Can be a problem in USA especially in
California in general and in the area of
SLAC
Liaison with Host Institute



UK personnel have a liaison person at the host
institute, who they must contact before they go
to the host institute and as soon as they arrive.
This person looks after all their reasonable
needs, somewhere to live , office space, etc.
etc.
They are not a substitute parent or nanny, even
though some people attempt to treat them as
such
Requirements for Institutes
being visited



Ensure that each visitor has a comprehensive
induction course at the first opportunity, not too
many weeks after the person arrives
Short term visitors must also be catered for e.g.
visits one day every two weeks
Radiation Dose records sent to the correct person
at the relevant institute
What happens if it all goes
wrong?




A visitor from another institute:-
Dies or causes someone else to get killed
Causes a fire which destroys a large part of
an experiment
Causes a large environmental incident
Who is in Trouble?





In differing degrees:The person at the TOP
The Head of the host facility
The Head of the visitor’s home institute
The visitor’s supervisors at the host institute
and at their home institute