Injury and Illness Recordkeeping Requirements
This is the first in a series of guidance documents issued under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) Temporary Worker Initiative (TWI). This Initiative focuses on compliance with safety and health requirements when temporary workers are employed under the joint (or dual) employment of a staffing agency and a host employer.
When a staffing agency supplies temporary workers to a business, typically, the staffing agency and the staffing firm client (also known as the host employer) are joint employers of those workers. Both employers are responsible to some degree for determining the conditions of employment and for complying with the law. In this joint employment structure, questions regarding which employer is responsible for particular safety and health protections are common. This bulletin addresses how to identify who is responsible for recording work-related injuries and illnesses of temporary workers on the OSHA 300 log.
Injuries and illnesses should be recorded on only one employer’s injury and illness log (29 CFR 1904.31(b)(4)). In most cases, the host employer is the one responsible for recording the injuries and illnesses of temporary workers.
Injury and illness recordkeeping responsibility is determined by supervision. Employers must record the injuries and illnesses of temporary workers if they supervise such workers on a day-to-day basis (29 CFR 1904.31(a)). Day-to-day supervision occurs when “in addition to specifying the output, product or result to be accomplished by the person’s work, the employer supervises the details, means, methods and processes by which the work is to be accomplished.” See OSHA FAQ 31-1 at www.osha.gov/recordkeeping. (Essentially, 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.) In most cases, the host employer provides this supervision.
While the staffing agency may have a representative at the host employer’s worksite, the presence of that representative does not necessarily transfer recordkeeping responsibilities to the staffing agency. As long as the host employer maintains day-to-day supervision over the worker, the host employer is responsible for recording injuries and illnesses.
Read the full article here: Osha Temporary Worker And Recordkeeping Nov 2016