Temporary Worker Safety: OSHA Takes a Closer Look

According to CBS News (www.cbsnews.com), "recent data suggest that roughly a third, and perhaps up to 40 percent, of American workers are in part-time, contract or other non-standard jobs. Recruiting firm MBO Partners projects that there will be 23 million contingent workers by 2017, up from roughly 17 million today."

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that fatal work injuries in 2011 involving temporary employees and independent contractors accounted for 542 (12%) of the total 4,693 fatal work injuries reported. For Hispanic temps the figure was 28%, well above their 16% share of the overall fatal work injury total for the year.

Several studies have shown than contingent workers are more likely to be injured on the job than regular workers. One such study conducted for the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries reported that:

• Temporary workers employed from temp agencies had higher rates of injury for all injury types.
• These workers also had higher median lost work time (40 vs. 27 days).
• Injury rate ratios were twice as high in construction and manufacturing.

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Find out everything you need to know about the best way to both design and defend a cost-effective, legally compliant safety program. BLR’s upcoming live webinar on safety strategy for lean times will get you up to speed—without leaving the building. Click here for details.

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OSHA Wades In

This spring, OSHA joined the discussion with a memorandum to area offices about the safety of temporary workers.

"In recent months," OSHA said, "we have received a series of reports of temporary workers suffering fatal injuries during the first days on a job. In some cases, the employer failed to provide safety training or, if some instruction was given, it inadequately addressed the hazard, and this failure contributed to their death.

"Given the number of temporary workers and the recent high profile fatal incidents, the agency is making a concerted effort using enforcement, outreach and training to assure that temporary workers are protected from workplace hazards."

OSHA most recently citied a beverage company following the death of a 21-year-old temporary worker on his first day on the job.

In order to determine whether employers are complying with their responsibilities to protect temps, OSHA compliance officers have been instructed to determine during inspections whether there are any temporary workers in the workplace and whether any of the identified temporary employees are exposed to any conditions in violation of OSHA regulations.

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Join us on July 26 for an in-depth live webinar to make sure your safety program in these lean times is designed to be both cost-effective and compliant. Learn More.

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Cost-Effective and Compliant Safety Strategies

One of the reasons for the rise in the number of temporary workers, of course, is the sluggish economy. And even though the economy is slowly crawling back, that doesn’t mean you have piles of money to throw at your safety program. You still need cost-effective training strategies to protect regular workers as well as temps.

Senior management is likely asking you to justify both what you’re doing and how much it costs—and, of course, you need to be sure you’re covering all of your regulatory and best practices bases as well.

Many safety professionals are not familiar with performing the kind of detailed and methodical analysis that is now expected of them. If you’re one of them, you won’t want to miss our informative webinar on July 26th.

You and your colleagues will learn:

• Management’s expectations regarding occupational safety and health training
• How to perform a comprehensive safety and health training needs analysis to justify a viable training program
• Strategies for constructively using regulatory requirements to support and justify your safety and health training program
• Proven strategies for evaluating and effectively using new technologies for training, including online resources
• How to use cost-analysis tools to determine the best strategies for designing your health and safety training program
• Tips for establishing and tracking reasonable, quantifiable safety training performance objectives
• Methods that should be considered when evaluating safety and health training program effectiveness—including surveys, pre- and post-tests, simulations, interviews, and questionnaires
• The quantifiable metrics that prove your safety and health training program is meeting defined and agreed-upon objectives

Your Speaker

Kevin Slates, Ed.,D., MPA, BS, CSP is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the department of Applied Health Science at Indiana University. He is also Director of the Industrial hygiene lab at the university. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses safety, industrial hygiene and environmental health. His research interests include program evaluation, EHS management systems, safety culture, health disparities and exposure assessment.

Slates’s experience includes working for the Kentucky Occupational Safety Health Program and the Environmental Public Protection Cabinet as a manager, consultant and inspector. His dissertation examined safety performance metrics and government VPP partnership programs. Dr. Slates holds a B.S. in Biology and Chemistry from Eastern Kentucky University, a M.P.A, in Public Administration from Kentucky State University and Doctorate in Education from Spalding University. He is a Certified Safety Professional and authorized OSHA outreach general industry and construction trainer. He is also an active member of AIHA and ASSE.

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