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30 PalletCentral • September-October 2021 palletcentral.com OSHA By Adele L. Abrams, Esq., CMSP TEMPORARY WORKER SAFETY M ost employers do a reasonably good job training and protecting their workers from the various occupational safety and health hazards associated with their assigned tasks specifically, and with the work environment in general, as workers may be jeopardized by tasks being performed by others unsafely. OSHA recognizes that temporary workers are at an elevated risk of injury or death, and has made their protection a priority. It emphasizes that the staffing agency and its client (the "host employer") are joint employers and must work together to ensure that all requirements under the Occupational Safety & Health Act and its implementing regulations are satisfied. There are often overlapping safety and health responsibilities, and in enforcement activities OSHA will consider a variety of factors, including the workplace conditions, any contractual terms in place, who is supervising the temporary work crew (someone sent by the agency, or one of the host's supervisors), and who has and hasn't provided appropriate training within their ability. This joint coordination requires effective communication between both entities: host and staffing agency. It There is no gray area when it comes to OSHA, safety and temporary workers. Here are standards to meet. is also critical that proper procedures are followed for the timely reporting of injuries, illnesses and fatalities by the proper entity, as well as accurate and timely entry of such events on the OSHA logs of the appropriate employer. When OSHA does triage on whether to send an inspector to a fatal or serious injury event, one of the triggers is having a temporary worker involved as the accident victim. OSHA conducts some programmed inspections that are based on the employer's "DART" rate (days away from work, restricted duty or transfer) as reported to the agency via its electronic data system. OSHA also has National Emphasis Programs (NEPs), including a focus on amputation prevention and lockout/tagout, which can trigger a programmed inspection of the worksite. These are targeted inspections and are limited in scope (relating only to the hazards and associated equipment) unless new hazards are observed or workers mention issues that expand the issues of concern. If there are temporary workers onsite engaged in the activities under scrutiny, they will be monitored by OSHA and questioned as to their training as temporary worker safety is a renewed emphasis for the agency. High hazard sector businesses with 20 or more workers at the worksite, whose rates are higher than average for their NAICS code, will receive priority in such inspections under OSHA's Site- Specific Targeting program. These are "wall to It's the Law! iStockphoto.com/comzeal

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