Who is responsible for the safety and health of temporary workers?

WORKING SAFELY BY?STEVE?SAYER

(The views and opinions expressed in this blog are strictly those of the author.)

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I still witness selected food and beverage companies that weren’t fully cognizant on who is responsible for the safety and health of temporary workers they elect to hire. This is especially prevalent with small and very small plants.

I’ve seen staffing agencies and host employers pointing fingers towards one another in the guise of lawsuits following serious injuries of temporary workers while OSHA sharpens their citation pencil in the background.

The majority of problems arise when the host company needs workers as quickly as possible to fill positions and assigns temporary workers to hazardous work without any specific safety training beforehand.

OSHA standards require both site - and task - specific safety and health training be provided for all workers. Safety training must be in a language the workers understand, which ultimately protects workers of both the staffing agency and the host employer.

Job tasks that the temporary worker is expected to perform and the safety and health responsibilities of both the host employer and staffing agency should be documented in the agency/host contract and must be communicated to the temporary worker before she/he begins work. In addition, supervisors of the host company must also be aware of applicable restrictions of the temporary workers that they supervise. This actually helps to promote job rotations in highly rote positions / industries where repetitive motion illnesses are known to occur.

For example, should the job task require personal protective equipment, the contract should state what equipment shall be needed and which employer shall supply it. Clearly defining the entire scope of the temporary worker’s tasks within the agency/host contract discourages the host employer from assigning the worker to perform tasks that the worker is not qualified or trained to perform.

Injury and illness record-keeping (OSHA 300 Log) responsibility is determined by one word — “Supervision.” OSHA defines the day-to-day supervision as the output that’s accomplished by a person’s work as the host employer supervises the processes by which the work is accomplished. Therefore the host employer is responsible to record the injuries and illnesses of temporary workers when they supervise such workers on a day-to-day basis as per 29 CFR 1904.31(a).

I’ve seen staffing agencies having a representative present at the host employer’s worksite, however the mere presence of that representative doesn’t transfer the recordkeeping responsibilities to the staffing agency.

The host employer must still maintain the actual day-to-day supervision over the contracted worker(s), which legally binds the host employer responsible for recording injuries and illnesses on the OSHA 300 log.

A separate employee register should also be developed that list the specific task(s) of each temporary employee that has been trained - via - a well-documented Job Safety Analysis with dates and signatures of the trainee and trainers. The temporary employee should also be made well aware of what she / he can be placed via documentation with plenty of signatures for any needed future references.

Finally, I’ve always recommended that host companies have their labor attorney closely review such contracts prior to signing on the dotted line and have included within their always important company policy manual, well-defined requirements/parameters involving temporary employees.

5/26/2017 Meatingplace.com (Revised 0515/2022)