In the absence of a clearly defined duty of safety care to subcontractors or other multiemployer project parties in OSHA regulations and in many state laws and regulations, recognizing safety related duties, liabilities and mitigative strategies poses a challenge for any company hiring subcontractors or acting at multiemployer project sites. The duty of care can be regulatory (statutory), retained via a contract or retained via controlling (managing) actions in the field. Knowing the mechanism of retaining or avoiding the duty of care (and associated liabilities) is an important consideration when designing safety risk mitigative strategies at multiemployer projects.
This article reviews the mechanism of retaining the duty of care via control and provides an overview of risk mitigative strategies. It discusses two categories of negative scenarios related to the duty of care (both based on actual case studies).
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