OSHA Launches Initiative to Protect Temporary Workers
A memorandum sent to the agency’s regional administrators
directs field inspectors to assess whether employers who use temporary workers
are complying with their responsibilities under the Occupational Safety and
Health Act. Inspectors will denote when temporary workers are exposed to safety
and health violations and assess whether temporary workers received required
training in a language and vocabulary they could understand.
In addition, OSHA has begun working with the American
Staffing Association and employers that use staffing agencies, to promote best practices
ensuring that temporary workers are protected from job hazards.
In recent months, OSHA has received a series of reports
about temporary workers suffering fatal injuries – many during their first days
on a job.
Last week, the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics
released new data from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries about workers
killed on the job in 2011. Fatal work injuries involving contractors accounted
for 542 – or 12 percent – of the 4,693 fatal work injuries reported. Hispanic/Latino
contractors accounted for 28 percent of fatal work injuries among contractors,
well above their 16 percent share of the overall fatal work injury total for
the year. Additional details are available at http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/contractor2011.pdf.
(From OSHA newsletter)
Trenton H. Cotney
Florida Bar Certified Construction Lawyer
Trent Cotney, P.A.
1211 N Franklin St
Tampa, FL 33602
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