Host Employer Duties for Temp Workers Under OSHA
When you bring temporary workers onto a US worksite, OSHA treats you and the staffing agency as joint employers. Both of you are responsible for the worker's safety. The host employer usually owns the hazards, the site-specific training and, in most cases, the injury log, while the agency owns general safety training and has a duty to check that the site it sends people to is safe.
That split is not written into a single regulation. It comes from OSHA's Temporary Worker Initiative, launched in 2013, and the series of guidance bulletins the agency has published since. Below is how the duties break down, where companies tend to get caught out, and what to put in writing before the first shift.
Why OSHA calls it joint responsibility
OSHA's position is simple: a temp worker has the same right to a safe workplace as anyone on your payroll, and neither employer can hand that duty entirely to the other. The agency picked the topic after a run of fatalities involving workers on their first days at a site, often in jobs they had never done before and with little or no training on the specific equipment.
In an inspection, OSHA can cite the host, the agency, or both. Which one gets cited depends on who had control over the hazard and who was in a position to prevent or correct it. A host that controls the conveyor, the chemical storage and the forklift traffic will almost always be the party expected to fix a problem with them.
Who handles what
The bulletins sort the main duties roughly like this. Your contract with the agency can shift some of them, but it cannot make either party's responsibility disappear.
Training. The agency provides general safety and health training that applies across worksites. The host provides site-specific training: the actual machines, the actual chemicals, the emergency exits and assembly points, the rules for that building. Training has to be in a language and vocabulary the worker understands.
Hazard communication. If temps handle or work near hazardous chemicals, the host must include them in its hazard communication program under 29 CFR 1910.1200: labels, safety data sheets and training on the specific substances. The agency should confirm that this training happened rather than assume it did.
Personal protective equipment. Under 29 CFR 1910.132, the employer pays for most required PPE. Between a host and an agency, either can supply it, and the bulletin on PPE says the two should agree in the contract on who provides which items. The host is usually better placed to do the hazard assessment, since it knows what the job involves.
Powered industrial trucks. Forklift operators need training and an evaluation under 29 CFR 1910.178(l). An agency can provide the general part, but the operator still has to be trained and evaluated on the type of truck and the conditions at your site. A certificate from somewhere else does not cover that.
Noise and medical surveillance. In loud environments, the host typically runs the hearing conservation program because it controls the noise source and the monitoring data. The agency's role is to make sure its workers are enrolled.
The injury log question
This is where most hosts are surprised. Under 29 CFR 1904.31, the employer that provides day-to-day supervision records the temp worker's work-related injuries and illnesses on its OSHA 300 log. For most warehouse, production and event jobs, that is the host, not the agency.
Day-to-day supervision means directing how the work is done, not just signing the timesheet. If your shift lead assigns tasks, sets the pace and corrects the method, the injury goes on your log. The agency should not record the same case, so the two sides need a simple way to tell each other when someone gets hurt.
Severe injuries carry their own clock. Under 29 CFR 1904.39, a work-related fatality must be reported to OSHA within 8 hours, and an in-patient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye within 24 hours. The supervising employer is the one expected to report, so your site procedures should cover temps the same way they cover your own staff.
What a good agency checks before sending anyone
OSHA expects staffing firms to do some due diligence on the host site. That does not mean an agency becomes your safety consultant, but a careful one will ask:
- What tasks the workers will do, and what equipment they will use
- Which PPE is required and who is supplying it
- Whether forklifts, ladders, lifts or power tools are involved
- Whether temps will handle chemicals, and whether they are in your HazCom program
- Who the site contact is on each shift, and where workers report
- How injuries are reported back to the agency
If an agency sends workers without asking any of this, treat it as a warning sign. The order should describe the job well enough that the worker shows up with the right boots and the right expectations. That is also what a sensible proposal from us looks like: roles, tasks, PPE, report location and site contact written into the request before anyone is scheduled.
Mistakes that lead to citations
A few patterns come up again and again in temp worker inspections:
- Assigning work outside the order. A temp booked as a general labourer is put on a forklift or a baler because someone called in sick. Now the training on file no longer matches the job.
- Skipping orientation on short assignments. A two-day assignment still needs the site-specific basics. Exits, hazards and who to tell when something goes wrong take minutes to cover.
- Assuming the agency handled PPE. Workers arrive with safety shoes but no cut-resistant gloves or hearing protection because nobody wrote down who was supplying them.
- Leaving temps off the 300 log. The host supervises the work but treats injuries as the agency's paperwork.
- Retaliation. Temps are covered by the whistleblower protections in Section 11(c) of the OSH Act. Ending an assignment because someone raised a safety concern exposes both employers.
Some states run their own OSHA-approved plans, such as Cal/OSHA in California, Washington's DOSH and Michigan's MIOSHA. Those programs must be at least as effective as federal OSHA and sometimes go further, so check the state rules for any site outside federal jurisdiction.
Putting it in the contract
None of this needs a long document. A short schedule attached to the staffing agreement can name, for each role, who provides general training, who provides site training, who supplies each PPE item, who keeps the injury log and how fast each side notifies the other of an incident. If you are still sorting out employment terms more broadly, our note on worker classification covers the related question of who is the employer for payroll and tax purposes.
For Canadian sites, the rules are different: provincial occupational health and safety acts apply, and in Ontario the temporary help agency licensing regime adds its own requirements. Our Ontario temporary help agency licence checklist goes through those.
Frequently asked questions
Is the staffing agency or the host employer responsible for temp worker safety?
Both are. OSHA treats them as joint employers, and either or both can be cited depending on who controlled the hazard. The host usually handles site-specific training and hazards, while the agency handles general training and checks that the site is safe.
Who records a temp worker's injury on the OSHA 300 log?
The employer that provides day-to-day supervision records it, under 29 CFR 1904.31. On most warehouse and production sites that is the host employer. Only one of the two employers should record the case.
Who pays for PPE for temporary workers?
OSHA requires the employer to pay for most required PPE, and it lets the host and the agency decide between themselves who supplies each item. The safest approach is to list every item in the staffing contract along with who provides it.
Can a temp agency forklift certificate be used at another site?
Not on its own. Under 29 CFR 1910.178(l), operators must be trained and evaluated on the specific truck types and workplace conditions they will face. The host usually completes that site-specific part before the worker drives.
Planning a temporary crew
If you are lining up temp workers for a warehouse, production line or event, tell us the roles, the site and the safety requirements through the request form. PPE, orientation and the site contact go into the order, and a staffing specialist follows up in writing with a proposal.