Liability & Duty of Care: Part 1
What is liability?
- A state of being liable
- A condition of owning something opposite to an asset
- A disadvantage
- A risk to business
- A legislative concept derived from the common law principle of an employer’s duty of care
- The basis for action in minimising risk
Employer’s Duty of Care
- An employer’s liability is a legislative concept having its roots in Common Law
- Originally this extended to a Duty of Care over fellow servants
- This responsibility could not be fully delegated
- However via authority, the implementation of responsibility can be delegated
- Note the similarities in interpretation with the clauses in recently updated WHS law (2012)
- Fundamentally nothing has changed and an employer still has a duty of care to contractors, employees and members of the public
Liability themes are common in all legislation
- Lord Thankerton, UK established the ‘Duty of Care’ concepts into British legislation: UK Law on line – Donoghue vs Stevenson
- Safety is paramount
- A master owes duties to a servant
- A supplier owes care to a client
- In society we have a duty of care to each other
- Breaches of duty of care aren’t affected by the action of fellow servants
- Performance of duty of care is the absolute responsibility of the employer (Lord Wright – Lord Wright and Innovative Traditionalism – Duxbury)