Safety
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Safety Focus
According to the American Staffing Association, America’s staffing companies hire approximately 16 million temporary and contract workers per year. These temporary workers are being more highly utilized than ever before, performing light and heavy industrial labor and other jobs with more complexity and, subsequently, greater health and safety risks. Temporary workers can add value to many businesses; however, using temporary workers should not be considered a cheap or easy fix.
Rights and Responsibilities
Temporary workers are those workers who are supplied to a host employer and paid by a staffing agency. The host employer and staffing agency are joint employers, which means both are responsible for providing and maintaining a safe working environment for temporary workers.
Under the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act, all workers—including temporary employees—have the right to a safe and healthy workplace. To further protect temporary workers, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) launched the Temporary Worker Initiative in 2013, which focuses on ensuring compliance with the OSH Act. The Initiative addresses some common risks associated with joint employment and offers resources in plain language on topics such as health and safety training, recordkeeping, personal protective equipment (PPE), and hazardous communication.
Best Practices
Because temporary workers are jointly employed, the host employer and staffing agency have different health and safety responsibilities, some of which overlap. When hiring temporary workers, effective communication and understanding of responsibilities is vital to ensure workers are adequately protected.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Services Sector Council—in partnership the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), the American Staffing Association (ASA), and the Safety and Health Assessment and Research for Prevention (SHARP) program—published Protecting Temporary Workers: Best Practices for Host Employers as a guide to help staffing agencies and host employers better protect the health and safety of temporary workers.
The best practices are organized into the following three sections, each with a checklist to help guide the host employer in its health and safety efforts:
- Evaluation and contracting. Before commencing employment, the staffing agency and host must evaluate all facets of safety and health for the job(s) temporary workers are hired to perform. This includes reviewing all worksites, conducting a joint risk assessment, performing a job hazard analyses, and identifying any necessary training and protection required. Staffing agencies need to be aware of what conditions exist at the worksite, potential hazards that may be present, and how to ensure workers’ protection. This should all be specified in a written contract along with job details, communication responsibilities, injury and illness reporting responsibilities, and other aspects of workplace health and safety. Host employers should also include the staffing agency and temporary employees in any routine supplier or vendor evaluations of performance to minimize liability risks.
- Training for temporary workers and their worksite supervisors. Training is paramount. OSHA requires site- and task-specific safety and health training on approved tasks, hazard identification and control, PPE, OSHA laws/rights, emergency procedures, reporting health and safety concerns/incidents, accessing secure sites, safety and health program participation, etc. Generally speaking, providing this training is a shared responsibility. Staffing agencies conduct general safety and health training that is applicable to different occupational settings; the host provides site-specific training tailored to the hazards and conditions of the workplace. Supervisors should also be trained on approved tasks for temporary workers, process for changing job tasks, mentoring and supervision, OSHA laws, communication and reporting, and joint responsibilities of the host and agency. It is important to make sure supervisors are updated on any changes in temporary worker’s approved tasks and that they understand their responsibility and authority to correct any actions or behaviors that are unsafe.
- Injury and illness reporting, response, and recordkeeping. There should be a procedure for sharing illness and injury information between the joint employers. The host must also set up a method for employees to report work-related injuries and illnesses. If a temporary worker experiences and injury or illness, the host must inform the staffing company of the injury/illness, report it to OSHA, complete required recordkeeping (i.e., OSHA 300 log), conduct a joint investigation with the staffing agency, and coordinate medical treatment/return to work. The host should also have a program to reduce the number and severity of workplace injuries and illnesses and ensure that temporary workers are trained and participate in it.
Research indicates that temporary workers may be more at risk of work-related injury than permanent employees. As temporary workers become a bigger segment of the labor market, temporary worker safety is becoming a larger and more critical issue. Host employers have the legal responsibility to provide all workers with safe and healthy workplaces. This requires recognizing the complex issues associated with employing temporary workers and ensuring they are provided the same rights and protections as permanent employees.
More information can be found on temporary workers at the following websites: