What OSHA expects from you?
Thus, OSHA is concerned about temporary employee’s training and the manner in which work is done. It does not require employers to pay compensation benefits, but they are certainly responsible for temporary worker safety as they are for your own employees. All temporary staff should be provided with adequate Personal Protective Equipment as needed on the job. Additionally, employers must log all injuries sustained by temporary workers on your OSHA 300 log.
Under the Multi-Employer Work site Policy, the act creates two types of obligations:
(1) A “general duty” obligation running only to the employer’s own employees; and
(2) An obligation to obey all OSHA standards with respect to all employees, regardless of their employer.
Thus, with the economy continuing to be slow and employers trying to evade workers’ compensation, higher wages, union drives and the duty to ensure that their workers are citizens or legal immigrants; the number of temporary workers have been spiraling up over the years. In this scenario, employers need to insure a few action points:
- Coordinate with Temporary agencies to provide PPE and training, verifying results.
- Identify areas of training that need additional emphasis.
- Insure Temporary employees have PPE and knowledge required to perform the tasks given.
- Treat temporary employees the same as your employees by providing the same level of safety training.