I’m confused, isn’t this a round table conversation rather than a talk?
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Poor wording on my part. It’s a round table.
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Hi ilidur
I was at the round table but had to go early to give a talk. I subsequently had a further chat with London and S London hackspaces. Would be very keen to get the link to the audio recording you made, so I can summarise it for the rest of our directors at Leicester Hackspace.
Tony
Hi Tony,
There was a request to review the audio. Hopefully that should come back by Monday. Afterwards I’ll post a link here. I managed to do a rough pass on note taking since it’s a very long discussion.
Following up on insurance and ‘do you need employers liability cover?’. Technically volunteers/members are not employees for H&S, however as stated on http://www.hse.gov.uk/voluntary/index.htm anyone in control of a non-domestic property is responsible for anyone on that site. It states that volunteers carrying out high risk activities can expect the same levels of protection to a paid employee.
So the interpretation of that that I have been advised is that you need insurance and if insurers are only offering to cover it under employers liability then that is what you need. They could cover it some other way, but if they aren’t then that is the only option.
The argument that ‘russ is a genius’ is not very helpful to understanding the subtleties of the situation. Even if he is right, you may have misinterpreted, or even if you are both right that doesn’t help anyone else know why.
This is correct, although in this case you should have assurances in writing that the policy will cover volunteers who aren’t bona fide employees.
In theory the law has a fairly solid definition of “employment” which unpaid volunteers do not meet. You’re only required to have employer’s liability insurance if you actually employ people. So it’s always an option to not carry insurance, but it might not be a very sensible option.
Also note that since reforms in insurance law a few years ago, if you do not disclose to your insurer all the information about your business that they think you should have disclosed, your insurance policy can be found invalid. So please don’t take my word for this, you must discuss it truthfully with your insurer/broker.
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Hey everyone, the audio and digested transcripts are now up. Thanks to all who participated!
Thanks for clarifying.