Temporary Workers: What the Host Employer and the Staffing Agency Each Owe

When a staffing agency places a worker at a host employer's site, it is easy for each company to assume the other is handling safety. So who is responsible for that worker's safety, training, and injury records? Part of the answer is regulation and part is OSHA guidance, and you need to know which is which.

Regulation: the employer that supervises day to day records the injury

The recordkeeping rule in 29 CFR 1904.31 is law. It starts with your own payroll: "You must record on the OSHA 300 Log the recordable injuries and illnesses of all employees on your payroll, whether they are labor, executive, hourly, salary, part-time, seasonal, or migrant workers." (1904.31(a))

Then it reaches past your payroll: "You also must record the recordable injuries and illnesses that occur to employees who are not on your payroll if you supervise these employees on a day-to-day basis." (1904.31(a))

The rule applies that test to workers you obtain "from a temporary help service, employee leasing service, or personnel supply service": "You must record these injuries and illnesses if you supervise these employees on a day-to-day basis." (1904.31(b)(2))

Contractors get the same test: "If the contractor's employee is under the day-to-day supervision of the contractor, the contractor is responsible for recording the injury or illness. If you supervise the contractor employee's work on a day-to-day basis, you must record the injury or illness." (1904.31(b)(3))

One limit on scope: these recording duties fall on employers that have to keep OSHA injury and illness records. Part 1904 partially exempts a company that "had 10 or fewer employees at all times during the last calendar year" (1904.1(a)(1)) and an establishment "classified in a specific industry group listed in appendix A to this subpart" (1904.2(a)(1)). Neither exemption applies if the employer is asked or told to keep records under 1904.41 or 1904.42.

Regulation: each case goes on one log, not two

Must the staffing agency also record a case for a worker the host supervises? The rule answers: "No, you and the temporary help service, employee leasing service, personnel supply service, or contractor should coordinate your efforts to make sure that each injury and illness is recorded only once: either on your OSHA 300 Log (if you provide day-to-day supervision) or on the other employer's OSHA 300 Log (if that company provides day-to-day supervision)." (1904.31(b)(4))

Notice the wording: recording is a "must" for the employer that supervises day to day, while coordinating with the other employer is a "should".

Section 1904.31 does not define day-to-day supervision. OSHA's Temporary Worker Initiative Bulletin No. 1, "Injury and Illness Recordkeeping Requirements," describes it, but that bulletin is guidance and says it is "not a standard or regulation". It says an employer is performing day-to-day supervision "when that employer controls conditions presenting potential hazards and directs the worker's activities around, and exposure to, those hazards." It adds: "In most cases, the host employer is the one responsible for recording the injuries and illnesses of temporary workers."

Everything from here on is OSHA guidance, not regulation text.

OSHA's "Protecting Temporary Workers" page calls the staffing agency and the host employer "joint employers of temporary workers" and says "both are responsible for providing and maintaining a safe work environment for those workers."

The page also says the two are "jointly responsible", and it names training, hazard communication, and recordkeeping as examples. But it says the extent of each employer's responsibility under the law "is dependent on the specific facts of each case". That is a principle, not a fixed split.

OSHA guidance: general training from the agency, site-specific training from the host

The same page says "each employer should consider the hazards it is in a position to prevent and correct". Its example: "staffing agencies might provide general safety and health training, and host employers provide specific training tailored to the particular workplace equipment/hazards."

Bulletin No. 4, "Safety and Health Training," also "not a standard or regulation", says: "In most cases, the host employer is responsible for site-specific training and the staffing agency is responsible for generic safety and health training."

The page adds: "Host employers must treat temporary workers like any other workers in terms of training and safety and health protections."

OSHA guidance: the staffing agency is expected to ask about the host site

According to the "Protecting Temporary Workers" page:

"Staffing agencies have a duty to inquire into the conditions of their workers' assigned workplaces."
Staffing agencies "need not become experts on specific workplace hazards, but they should determine what conditions exist" at the host and "what hazards may be encountered".
"The staffing agency has the duty to inquire and verify that the host has fulfilled its responsibilities for a safe workplace."

What to do with this

Identify which employer supervises each temporary worker on a day-to-day basis. That employer must record the worker's recordable injuries and illnesses (1904.31(a), 1904.31(b)(2)).
Coordinate with the other employer so each case is recorded only once (1904.31(b)(4)).
Put the split in writing. OSHA's page "recommends that the temporary staffing agency and the host employer set out their respective responsibilities for compliance with applicable OSHA standards in their contract."
Agree on who delivers general training and who delivers site-specific training.
Staffing agencies: ask about conditions and hazards at the host site. Hosts: give temporary workers the same training and protections as your other workers.
Share injury information. Bulletin No. 1 says "information about injuries and illnesses should flow between the host employer and staffing agency."

Steps 3 through 6 follow OSHA guidance, not regulation text.

Source

Regulation: 29 CFR 1904.31, Covered employees, with the partial exemptions in 1904.1 and 1904.2. OSHA guidance, not regulation: the Protecting Temporary Workers page and two bulletins linked from it, Temporary Worker Initiative Bulletin No. 1 and Bulletin No. 4. The regulation itself always controls. States that run their own OSHA-approved State Plans may have additional or stricter rules.