This Week's Feature
Who's responsible for temps under OSHA?
Excerpted from Alabama Employment Law Letter, written by attorneys at the law firm Lehr Middlebrooks & Vreeland, P.C.
Who's responsible for Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) compliance when temporary or leased employees are involved -- the agency supplying the employees or the client employer for whom they're working?
Through interpretive letters and compliance directives, OSHA takes the position that it may be a shared responsibility. The temporary services provided as a result of an ongoing relationship with the employee could likely create some recordkeeping and training obligations. The primary responsibility, however, rests with the client employer that creates and controls working conditions at its workplace.
The client employer can ensure that machinery is guarded, necessary personal protective devices are used, needed monitoring is done to see whether employees are being overexposed to contaminants, and the like. The temporary service agency needs to maintain all medical monitoring and exposure records created by client employers on agency employees.
The issue of whether the client employer or the temporary service agency is responsible for temps arises most in the area of employee training. You should be aware that there's no exemption from the various training requirements simply because the temp's assignment is for a short duration.
For instance, training or safety instruction must be given to construction employees even for very short-term jobs. OSHA often has found situations when permanent employees were properly trained as required by a particular standard but their temporary counterparts weren't. That has resulted in citations and sometimes significant penalties.
The need to fix responsibility frequently arises with the hazard communication standard and its training requirement. In that circumstance, the temporary service agency is expected to provide some generic training. The client employer has to provide the specifics about the hazardous chemicals used at its site and how its program is implemented.
Similarly, the blood-borne pathogens standard requires generic training by the employment agency with site-specific training and implementation by the client employer. Under that standard, the temporary agency also needs to ensure that employees are provided with required vaccinations and follow-up evaluations after exposure incidents.
OSHA points out in interpretive documents that the client employer may wish to specify what qualifications it will require of supplied personnel. That could include training in particular chemicals and use of personal protective equipment. It's also advised that contracts between the parties clearly describe their respective responsibilities so that all OSHA requirements will be met.
A recordable injury or illness to a temporary worker should be entered on the client employer's OSHA 300 log if it provides day-to-day supervision of the worker. The temporary labor service shouldn't record the case. OSHA regulation 1904.31 suggests that client employers and labor supply services coordinate their recordkeeping to ensure that a case is recorded only once.
Copyright © M. Lee Smith Publishers LLC. This article is an excerpt from ALABAMA LAW LETTER. The Alabama State Bar requires the following disclosure: "No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers."
This Week on HRhero.com
HR Q&A
Liability for negligent hiring
From Arkansas Employment Law Letter
Q: I own a furniture store. One of my delivery guys recently decided to steal some food from a convenience store while he was out making deliveries. When the cashier confronted him, my driver beat him up pretty badly in an effort to get away.
The cashier has threatened to sue my business over the incident. I ran a criminal background check on the driver before I hired him because I wanted to make sure he wouldn't be stealing from my customers' homes, and no felonies or violent crimes showed up. Will I be liable for what he did?
Employers Forum
Tuition Reimbursement Policy
We want to update our tuition reimbursement policy. Does anyone have a policy that requires repayment of a portion of the tuition if employee leaves within a certain time period after completing the degree?
chec, SC
Visit Employers Forum to join other discussions or post a question of your own.
How do I join Employers Forum discussions?
HRhero.com Subscribers Area Resources
Get specific ... state-specific, that is. About 75% of HR Hero Line subscribers also subscribe to our state-specific Employment Law Letters. Sign up for your state's Employment Law Letter to get monthly, state-specific updates and access to the HRhero.com Subscribers Area.
Employers in the Courtroom
Public employers: Don't forget your name-clearing obligation
From Mississippi Employment Law Letter
Under certain circumstances, public employers are required to allow an employee who has been fired a "name-clearing" hearing. A recent case from the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Mississippi) restates the requirements for entitlement to a hearing.
Read on (Subscribers only)
Tool: HR Answer Engine
Need help with an employment law or specific HR challenge? As an Employment Law Letter subscriber, you have access to a wealth of answers contained in the HRhero.com searchable database.
Log in using your HRhero.com username and password. Need help logging in?
- Under HR Answer Engine in the middle column, click "Search the Subscribers Area."
- Enter words relating to your area of interest in the Search boxes.
- Choose the year and state. (To search for all articles on a topic, select "All" under Year and State.)
- Click "How Many Items" to see how many articles match your search. If you want to limit your seach, you can limit by year or state or additional keywords.
- When you're ready to view the list of articles matching your topic, click "Display Results."
Remember, we're always here to help! If you have any questions, please call 800-274-6774.