Employers Beware – Temps Are Your Responsibility

Posted February 3, 2017 at 1:24 pm

In case anyone thought the new administration would mean the demise of OSHA’s Temporary Worker Initiative (TWI), the status quo prevails – at least for now – according to a recent report from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

The TWI is a program that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) developed to protect temporary workers from workplace injuries and illnesses. Under this initiative, if you have temporary staff working in your plant and OSHA issues a citation, both the temp agency and the company will be cited. This practice is expected to continue under the Trump administration, the SHRM report said.

Other points that employers working with temporary staff should consider include the fact that under the TWI, OSHA considers both the company and the temp agency responsible for safety training of staff. In addition, misclassifying temporary workers, independent contractors, freelancers and other “on-demand” workers as employees violates the Fair Labor Standards Act, and could subject employers to the payment of back wages and other benefits, as well as fines. Click here for details.

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