thewitch Wrote:The "paid"/"not paid" thing actually makes no difference if you do something wrong or stupid or do not do something you should have, and a disaster occurs as a result. In law you would still be held responsible.
If you do what you have been trained and instructed to do, and still something terrible happens, you are not culpable... paid or otherwise.
However, there would be an unbelieveable amount of paperwork recording who worked and when, tax implications of dealings with people from off-island etc etc.
I know from doing work for organisations in Scotland, the tax people there get in a real twist. They don't seem to know their own rules.
Perhaps a way of having your marshal's credentials signed by the DSM might entitle you to something.. eg, discount on the next trip on IOMSP. The more sessions covered, the more reward.

Spot on Helen, payment is irrelevant. H & S legislation doesn't differentiate or recognise rates of pay to determine laibility. Neither does it recognise any difference between paid work and voluntary whether a contract of employment exists or not. The rules apply to all just the same. Roles and responsibilities are more important.

Also I'd agree with you that a person cannot be held liable if they are doing their job in a manner that's neither reckless or careless but compliant with the manner in which they have been trained and to a standard to which they are deemed to be competent. In most circumstances the practitioners on the factory floor, so to speak, do just that. The most likely scenario depicts the underlying causes in almost every example that I can think of as, yes, you've guessed it, management failings.

The more I read the Coroner's report the more I'm convinced that that is what he is saying. When I read some of the initial news reports I winced at the expression Mr. Moyles had used to describe the DoT, a laughing stock if my memory is correct, and thought he'd been too harsh. Now that I've read the full report I no longer think that his choice of words were in any way harsh.

alf