Who is responsible for temp workers?
When a staffing agency supplies temporary workers to a business, typically the staffing agency and the staffing firm client (i.e., the host employer) are joint employers of those workers. Both employers are responsible to some degree for determining the conditions of employment and for complying with the law. In this joint employment structure, questions regarding which employer is responsible for particular safety and health protections are common. For example: Who records workplace injuries and illnesses?
Supervision
Injury and illness recordkeeping responsibility is determined by supervision. Employers must record the injuries and illnesses of temporary workers if they supervise the workers on a day-today basis.
Essentially, an employer is performing day-to-day supervision when that employer controls conditions presenting potential hazards and directs the workers’ activities around, and exposure to, those hazards. In most cases, the host employer provides this supervision even if these workers are not carried on the host employer’s payroll.
Reporting
The staffing agency and host employer must set up a way for employees to report workrelated injuries and illnesses promptly and tell each employee how to report those injuries and illnesses. If a temporary worker sustains an injury or illness and the host employer knows about it, the staffing agency should be informed, so the staffing agency knows about the hazards facing their workers. Equally, if a staffing agency learns of an injury or illness, they should inform the host employer so that future injuries might be prevented, and the case is recorded.
Recording
Injuries and illnesses should be recorded on only one employer’s injury and illness log. In most cases, the host employer is the one responsible for recording the injuries and illnesses of temporary workers.
The non-supervising employer (generally the staffing agency) still shares responsibility for its workers’ safety and health. The staffing agency, therefore, should maintain frequent communication with its workers and the host employer to ensure that
any injuries and illnesses are properly reported and recorded.
Such communication also alerts the staffing agency to existing workplace hazards and to any protective measures that
need to be provided to its workers.