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International Legal Question

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 10:34 am
by 95HSE92
Hi All,

Random question raised internally ... we are an international company and the question is; will US located and US citizen employees under a UK company contract be subject to UK H&S Law?

Re: International Legal Question

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 10:43 am
by bernicarey
Good question.

I can only speak from the experiences of a good friend who worked for facebook for a few years.
As he was employed by facebook UK, when he went to the USA for a bit, he was under UK employment law, not US law, so got better healthcare, holiday etc than the guys he worked with who were facebook USA employees.

There is provision for the HSWA to apply, at least as far as I read it, in s84
(3)Her Majesty may by Order in Council provide that the provisions of Parts I and II and this Part shall, to such extent and for such purposes as may be specified in the Order, apply (with or without modification) to or in relation to persons, premises, work, articles, substances and other matters (of whatever kind) outside Great Britain as those provisions apply within Great Britain or within a part of Great Britain so specified.
I think the issue might be that they are US Citizens, not UK. Personally, I would say go for the higher standard, and you can't go wrong. That's how the MOD work wherever they are in the world. You can't be in breach of safety law if you exceed the lower national standard.

Re: International Legal Question

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 1:38 pm
by Andyblue
Can we clarify - the person is a US citizen, working in the US, is a US employee but the link is they are contracted to do work for a UK company.
At first flush, I’d say not. In its simplest form, it would be like a UK ex-pat getting a tyre changed (contract of work) and having Tyre Fit US being under the HSWA.
I guess the OP is meaning a full written contract. That would be where all the decisions would come from.