Upcoming events – Spring 2023
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A member engaged a contractor to conduct maintenance work on their premises. The lighting at the local government property where the contractor was working was defective or poorly designed such that after a set time, the lights would automatically turn off. Whilst the contractor was carrying out their work, the lights turned off and they fell leading to a significant injury.
As the entity in control of the premises, the City owed a ‘duty of care’ to the contractor to ensure they were not exposed to unreasonable risks. In this situation, the defective lighting design/system was deemed to be an unreasonable risk.
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Western Australia is home to 129 public aquatic facilities and thousands more school, hotel/motel and back yard pools. While many know of the risks within these facilities such as lack of patron supervision, inappropriate use of shallow water and issues associated with slips, trips and falls – non-compliance with equipotential bonding (earthing) requirements can present a relatively unknown or hidden risk.
Medicinal cannabis is a therapy that has generated increased national attention over the past two years.
During the investigation, we found that the lighting was originally designed by another contractor and not by the member themselves. Unfortunately, the local government did not retain any records of the contractor involved and therefore, we had no ability to join them as a party or bring them into the court proceedings and assign all or if not part of the liability to them.
As a result of the defective lighting design/system on the member’s premises, the contractor suffered an injury and the member was liable to pay damages to the injured contractor. LGIS negotiated a settlement with the contractor involved.
Lessons from this case
This matter highlights the importance of ensuring proper records are created and retained regarding all work performed by members and any agreements with third party contractors for work to be done on its behalf. As the member failed to do this in this matter, it could not attribute or share liability for the incident and, therefore, was exposed to 100% of the liability for the contractor’s injuries and loss.
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The first quarter of 2023/24 has been a busy one for your Scheme; our member services team has been out on the road visiting members, and I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to continue to meet members and discuss the issues that matter to you.
In 2022/23 LGIS received over 2,300 claims and paid out over $43.8 million. It’s a similar story most years with LGIS handling more than 2,000 claims across property, liability, workers’ compensation, motor and volunteer bushfire fighter protection.
An outside worker in his early 40s sustained a significant workplace injury to his lower back at a local government owned/ operated facility while trying to assist a ratepayer who had attended the facility.
LGIS is the unifying name for the dedicated suite of risk financing and management services for WA local governments, established by the WA Local Government Association in conjunction with JLT Public Sector (part of the Marsh group of companies). LGIS is managed by JLT Public Sector (ABN 69 009 098 864 AFS Licence 226827).
Risk Matters, via this website, is designed to keep members, their staff and elected members informed on topical risk management and insurance issues and LGIS programs and services.
