The temporary workforce is a rapidly growing, but as it grows, so to do injuries to temporary workers. On April 29th, 2013, OSHA launched the Temporary Workers Initiative to protect temporary employees from workplace hazards after 2011 BLS data indicated that temporary workers were suffering fatal injuries during the first days on a job, in many cases, as a result of inadequate training.
On March 12, 2014, ASSE’s Virtual Classroom presented Temporary Workers Safety, a webinar highlighting the efforts put forth by OSHA’s Temporary Workers Initiative. Presenter Thomas Marrero Jr., national safety director of Tradesman International, discussed some of the challenges facing the staffing industry today and how this new initiative effects the staffing industry, contractors and the workforce.
Since the launch of this program, OSHA and the American Staffing Association (ASA) have been involved in stakeholders meeting and talks about forming an alliance to better understand the staffing agency/host employer relationship, as there has been some discrepancies in dual employer responsibilities.
According to Marrero, temporary workers make up about 2% of the entire non-farm U.S. workforce and are available in virtually every field. The broad range of temporary workers includes clerical workers, construction workers, technical and professional workers and everything in between, he continued, but, the staffing industry feels that the BLS data created confusion within OSHA as to the role of staffing agencies.
According to ASA, the fatality data attributable to temporary workers in 2011 is relatively low in comparison to overall fatalities for all workers. Mean that while ASA and staffing agencies are in favor of the OSHA initiative in hopes that it gives better clarity as to the responsibilities of the host employer and staffing agency, the issue is much broader than staffing alone.
As ASA and Marrero point out, OSHA must understand how this initiative affects several different industries differently. “Staffing agencies should not be viewed or treated as contractors or sub-contractors but rather as labor providers,” Marrero said.
Following this statement, OSHA issued an updated memorandum on Sept. 5, 2013, to regional administrators that stated, “as reminder, as stated in the previous memorandum please note that, for the purposes of the Temporary Worker Initiative, a ‘temporary worker’ is one who is working under a host employer/staffing agency employment structure. It does not include day laborers or seasonal workers who are hired directly by a single employer, nor contractor/subcontractor relationships.”
“It is important that OSHA understands how staffing firms operate on a day-by-day basis and that they do not overestimate the staffing firms’ ability to evaluate and remedy host employers jobsite hazards,” Marrero said.
Staffing firms have limited control of a job site once an employee is discharged. “We do evaluate job conditions, but as many you know, especially within construction, job sites change by the minute and there is limited level of control that we can exercise when we are not present on the job," he said. "We, in essence, have to entrust our clients with our employees and have to trust that hazards are being mitigated and also have to trust that our employees will address hazards or at the very least bring it to a staffing agencies attention.”
Since the launch of the initiative, ASA has provided education to its members and urged OSHA to focus on the education of client or host employer communities about their responsibilities, Marrero said. OSHA has been focused on education and awareness promoting compliance assistance nationally and locally; identifying best practices; meeting with stakeholders; developing outreach materials for both staffing agencies and host employers; and even launching a Temporary Workers webpage laying out what they feel the issues are.
For more information on this initiative and recommendations available, visit www.osha.gov/temp_workers.
