A new study found that safety programs designed to meet the needs of temporary workers in the U.S. are lacking, leaving millions of workers unprotected from workplace hazards.
U.S. companies hire about 14.5 million temporary and contract workers every year, according to the American Staffing Association. A new report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) revealed that those workers don’t receive the same level of workplace safety that their full-time counterparts get.
Researchers sought to “understand U.S. staffing company perceptions of the barriers to and facilitators of temporary worker safety and health.”
This was also done to gain better understanding of previous research that found temporary employees suffered higher rates of work-related injuries when compared to full-time workers.
Despite federal OSHA and NIOSH both finding that staffing companies and host employers are responsible for keeping temporary workers safe, effective safety programs designed for those workers are severely lacking.
Employment agencies can do 2 things to help improve situation
That’s based on researchers’ phone interviews with representatives from 15 U.S. staffing companies. Those interviews were recorded, transcribed and then analyzed.
The staffing company representatives told researchers that there were several barriers to temporary worker safety and health, including:
- differential treatment of temporary workers by host employers
- a lack of understanding of joint safety responsibilities among host employers and staffing companies, and
- workers’ fear of job loss or other negative impacts if they report an injury or voice safety concerns.
However, the staffing company representatives also mentioned two ways that staffing companies can promote better workplace safety and health for temporary employees, including:
- conducting host employer assessments and site visits, and
- fostering strong communication and relationships with host employers and temporary workers.
Going forward, the researchers involved with this study feel that these “findings can be used to inform safety programs to promote health equity among temporary workers.”
