Who pays for damage?

[Peter]

When something gets broke, who pays for it?

 

For instance, I was out on a team with a trainee climber the other day, and he snapped a phone line. Ok, he shouldnt have, but is it really fair to charge him the cost of replacement?

On another note, if piece of company equipment gets damaged, say a bar is bent, can you justify making the culprit pay for a new one? After all, you've had a year out of the bar, and that is probably 50 % of its working life.

 

Your thoughts please.

[bill]

at my company we are meant to pay for all our damages, but sometimes we can get out of it. i we break it we try and fix it. as for equipment, alsot of times things break cuz of wear but our boss will blame us.:asshole2:

[Colin Bashford]

Surely this is why there should be insurance to cover all eventualities.

 

Colin

[High Scale]

I broke a BT cable the other day, totally my fault, I was taking down a very dead Ash that was unsafe to climb, should have waited and used a hoist, anyway we called BT and told them a dead branch had fallen whilst working on the tree, this is what we always did during my line clearance days if a BT line was brought down, never tell them you broke it or they will charge you around 150 quid.

 

I am sure somebody will whine at me for saying this.

[Peter]

Insurance to cover all eventualities is fine, but if you claim for everything your premiums will rocket, I'm sure most contractors will cover smaller items out of their own pockets to keep claims to a minimum.

The traditonal approach with bt doesnt seem to work anymore, at least not round here.

Last charge for a new line from bt was £380.

If it is something that can be fixed easily on the spot then it gets fixed, no question.

[bill]

we have someone who will take one down and put it up for £50.

 

your not going to claim on insurance for a £10 fence panel.

[Steve Bullman]

i think if something gets broken through carelessness, ie, vut and chuck rather than lowering then its the climbers responsibility, its just proving that it was through carelessness? at the end of the day the boss isnt paying the employee a premium on top of their wages for them to be able to afford mishaps, thats in his pricing. as a contract climber i get lumbered with some pretty crappy stuff sometimes, if i know theres particularly fragile targets such as asbestos that will break with a twig i will tell the boss beforehand its at his finiancial risk. anything within my control is my problem!

[Andy Collins]

I think if its something minor, ie a bent bar on a small saw, the company can cover the cost. BUT that should be dependent on how responsible the staff are. If they treat your kit, and clients property with a total lack of respect, then they should pay. Its no fun having staff who sling the kit around, breaking it cos they couldnt care less. By the same token, if they are normally carefull and conscientious, and on an odd occasion something breaks, then cut them some slack. Insurance will cover expensive damage, (mine has a £500 excess), but phone lines etc are small costs. I cut a phone line covered in Russian Vine once, luckily a BT lineman was down the road, bunged him a tenner, and it was sorted.

[bob]

its always a sticky prob if your going to get charged for all damage your going to cause as a climber then your either not going to want to tackle those more demanding risky jobs or your going to take longer to do the job which also costs the boss more than a odd fence panel

there is also what is accidental damage and avoidable damage

my employer pays for everything though we are given all bills for damage to make us aware how much stuff costs

[ArbjobsNick]

Not that I have ever done it but have you seen how easy it is to disconnect - reconnect a BT phone line? Of course I wouldn't recommend anyone to tamper with BT hardware!

 

I didn't used to charge my guys for breakages but even a £10 fence pannel ends up a £100 bill once you time in the collection, replacement and disposal of broken one or lets put it another way, two days profit !