TWI BULLETIN NO. 4

Temporary Worker Initiative

Safety and Health Training 

This is part of a series of guidance documents developed under the 

Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) Temporary Worker 

Initiative (TWI). This Initiative focuses on compliance with safety and health 

requirements when temporary workers are employed under the joint 

employment of a staffing agency and a host employer.

Temporary workers are entitled to the same 

protections under the Occupational Safety and 

Health Act of 1970 (the OSH Act) as all other 

covered workers. When a staffing agency supplies 

temporary workers to a business, typically, the 

staffing agency and the staffing agency’s client, 

commonly referred to as the host employer, are 

joint employers of those workers. Both employers 

are responsible to some degree for determining the 

conditions of employment and complying with the 

law. In these joint employment situations, questions 

regarding how each employer can fulfill their duty 

to comply with the standard are common. This 

bulletin addresses what both the staffing agency 

and the host employer can do to provide safety and 

health training to temporary workers. 

Many OSHA standards include specific safety and 

health training requirements to ensure that workers 

have the required skills and knowledge to safely 

perform their work. These requirements reflect 

OSHA’s principle that training is an essential part 

of an effective safety and health management 

program for protecting workers from injuries and 

illnesses. Many fatal incidents have occurred where 

temporary workers were not provided the training 

necessary to do their job safely.

Training of Temporary Workers

The staffing agency and the host employer share 

the responsibility for training temporary workers. 

Training must be completed before the worker 

begins work on a project and the training must 

be in a language and vocabulary the worker 

understands. Depending on the industry, worksite, 

and job duties to which the temporary worker 

is assigned, certain OSHA standards which 

require both generic and specific training may be 

applicable. While both the host and the staffing 

agency are responsible to ensure that the employee 

is properly trained according to the applicable 

standard, the employers may decide that a division 

of the responsibility may be appropriate. As a 

recommended practice, the staffing agency and 

host employer should establish which party is 

responsible for each aspect of training, as well 

as inform the other employer when training 

is completed. The details of the training to be 

performed can be clearly stated in the language 

of the contract between the employers. However, 

neither employer may avoid their ultimate 

responsibilities under the OSH Act by requiring 

another party to perform them.
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In most cases, the host employer is responsible 

for site-specific training and the staffing agency is 

responsible for generic safety and health training. It is 

the responsibility of both the staffing agency and the 

host employer to review applicable OSHA standards, 

know the specific training requirements, and 

determine and agree upon the generic safety training 

requirements that the staffing agency will provide 

to temporary workers and the site-specific training 

requirements that the host employer will provide. 

The training goal is to ensure that workers know how 

to do their work safely, can identify hazards, and 

understand control and protective measures. 

Under OSHA’s Recordkeeping Requirement 

both the staffing agency and the host employer 

are responsible for ensuring that the temporary 

employees are involved in the recordkeeping 

system by training temporary employees on the 

reporting process for all work-related injuries or 

illnesses and setting up a system for the temporary 

workers to report work-related injuries and illnesses 

promptly. See 29 CFR 1904.35(b). The employer that 

supervises employees on a day-to-day basis (usually 

the host employer) must record the work-related 

injuries and illnesses of the temporary workers. See 

29 CFR 1904.31(b)(2). If the staffing agency is not 

the employer responsible for recording the workrelated injuries or illnesses, the staffing agency 

should implement a mechanism for the temporary 

employees to report incidents to the staffing agency. 

Neither the host employer nor the staffing agency 

should have any policies or programs that discourage 

the reporting of injuries, illnesses, or hazards. 

Host Employer Responsibilities

The host employer is usually responsible for 

site-specific training because it is often in the 

best position to provide such training. The host 

employer generally controls the details, means, 

methods and processes by which the work is to 

be accomplished. In addition, the host employer is 

most familiar with the hazards of the specific job 

tasks, machinery, equipment, and processes of its 

worksite and understands the training necessary to 

protect workers from those specific hazards. 

Staffing Agency Responsibilities

The staffing agency is usually responsible for 

providing generic safety and health training so 

that its workers have a basic ability to identify 

hazardous situations, report hazards, injuries and 

illnesses, and understand their rights if confronted 

with a hazardous situation at a worksite. The 

staffing agency is responsible for ensuring that 

employees receive proper site-specific training. In 

order to fulfill this obligation, the staffing agency 

must have a reasonable basis for believing that the 

host employer’s training adequately addresses the 

potential hazards to which employees will be exposed 

at the host employer’s worksite. If the staffing agency 

has reason to believe the site-specific training is not 

adequate, it should inform the host employer and 

collaboratively determine and provide adequate 

training, provide the training itself, or remove its 

workers from the host employer’s worksite. While 

the staffing agency may have a representative at 

the host employer’s worksite, the presence of that 

representative does not transfer responsibilities for 

site-specific training to the staffing agency. 

The staffing agency may agree to provide sitespecific training if it is familiar with the hazards of 

the worksite. The staffing agency may choose to 

conduct a walkthrough of the worksite to identify 

tasks that temporary employees will perform and 

the hazards of those tasks. However, the employer 

originally responsible for the particular training 

(determined by supervision and control over the 

workers and hazards) must still ensure that the 

workers complete the training and that the training 

is adequate before work begins. 
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Example Scenarios*

The examples provided below are fictitious but describe what often happens when 

temporary workers are not adequately trained for their job assignments by the staffing 

agencies and host employers. 

Construction Scenario

Remediation and Construction, LLC (RAC) is a company that remediates damaged commercial 

and residential structures. They need additional skilled roofers to complete a commercial 

remediation project in Alaska. RAC contracts with Temp Staffing to provide unskilled laborers 

on a temporary basis to complete the job on time because unskilled laborers are less expensive 

than skilled roofers. Temp Staffing did not determine the type of work these workers would be 

doing and just provided generic safety and health training for the workers before sending them 

to RAC’s worksite. 

At the RAC worksite, a RAC foreman assigned three of the temporary workers to work on the 

roof. For several days, the workers remove roofing material on top of a sheet metal roof of a 

fire-damaged building. The work location is approximately 13 feet above the ground. 

RAC did not mention to Temp Staffing that the temporary workers would be used as roofers 

and did not mention that the workers would need fall protection training or any other jobsitespecific training. The temporary workers convey their concerns to the RAC foreman regarding 

the lack of fall protection and training while working on the fire-damaged roof. The foreman 

takes no action to provide fall protection or fall protection training. 

Construction Analysis

RAC requested unskilled laborers instead of skilled roofers to complete the job. Therefore, RAC 

had no reason to believe the workers had received fall protection training. RAC was in the best 

position to provide the jobsite-specific training. Since RAC should have known from the start 

of the project that the workers did not have fall protection training, and the RAC foreman found 

out during the course of the project that the workers had not received fall protection training, 

RAC was responsible for identifying the need for fall protection training and providing the 

training under 29 CFR 1926.503 — Training requirements. RAC supervised and controlled the 

day-to-day work of the temporary workers at its worksite. For this failure to provide appropriate 

site-specific training, RAC may be subject to an OSHA citation.

In most cases, the temporary agency is responsible for generic safety and health training. 

Although Temp Staffing provided such generic training, it also had a responsibility to determine 

what its workers would be doing and the hazards to which they would be exposed in order to 

ensure that site-specific training was provided and completed. Temp Staffing failed to fulfill 

this responsibility when it made no effort to determine what kind of work the workers would be 

performing or if RAC had provided the necessary training. For failure to ensure that appropriate 

site-specific training was provided, Temp Staffing may also be subject to an OSHA citation 

related to fall protection training requirements.

*The company names in this scenario are fictitious. Any resemblance to real companies is entirely coincidental. 
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General Industry Scenario

A metal equipment manufacturer, Iron Alloys Co. (IAC), needs machine operators for a shortterm increase in production. The company contracts with a staffing agency, Temp Staffing, 

to provide workers. Temp Staffing hires ten temporary workers as power press operators 

and sends them to work on site at IAC. The staffing agency also hires a person to act as the 

temporary workers’ team leader who will communicate the host employer’s orders and any 

provided site-specific training. Before sending the workers to the IAC worksite, the staffing 

agency plays a generic safety training video on machine guarding for them.

At the worksite, a supervisor from IAC assigns each of the temporary workers to a particular 

work area and machine. On the assumption that the workers have experience working with 

mechanical power presses, no site-specific instruction is provided. The host employer then 

sends the workers directly to their assigned tasks, checking on their work throughout the shift. 

IAC’s workplace has numerous pieces of running machinery. Although compliance with safety 

and health requirements is mentioned in Temp Staffing’s contract with IAC, machine guarding 

is not addressed. IAC does not mention to either Temp Staffing or the temporary workers that 

many of IAC’s machines are mechanical power presses that require guards. A day after the 

temporary workers begin working at IAC, the Temp Staffing team leader informs his supervisor 

at Temp Staffing that a temporary worker removed a guard from the power press he was 

working on to clear a jam, and that supervisors from IAC saw the worker operating the machine 

without the guard in place. Temp Staffing took no action. 

General Industry Analysis

Although Temp Staffing played a generic safety training video on machine guarding, the 

training may not have been effective. Temp Staffing should have verified that its employees 

understood the elements included in the training. Temp Staffing may be subject to an OSHA 

citation for failing to ensure that its employees understood the generic training on machine 

guarding and working safely with machinery.

IAC was responsible for identifying the need for machine guarding and providing the needed 

training and other required site-specific work rules. IAC supervises and controls the day-to-day 

work of the temporary employees at its facility. Therefore, IAC is in the best position to provide 

the task-specific training. The training should have included instructions on how to operate 

the mechanical power presses safely, pursuant to 29 CFR 1910.217(f)(2). The responsibility of 

providing the training does not shift to Temp Staffing just because it included a team leader as 

part of the temporary work group. For this failure to provide appropriate site-specific training, 

IAC may be subject to an OSHA citation.

Temp Staffing also had a responsibility to ensure that the site-specific training was provided and 

completed. The staffing agency had reason to believe that IAC failed to fulfill this responsibility 

when it discovered that a temporary worker had operated a power press without a guard in place. 

Examples of measures Temp Staffing could have taken include reminding IAC of its obligations 

and following up to ensure that training was provided, removing the workers from the project, 

or providing the training itself in coordination with IAC. For this failure to ensure that appropriate 

site-specific training was provided, Temp Staffing may also be subject to an OSHA citation. 
State Plans

Twenty-eight states and U.S. territories have their 

own OSHA-approved occupational safety and health 

programs called State Plans. State Plans have and 

enforce their own occupational safety and health 

standards that are required to be at least as effective 

as OSHA’s, but may have different or additional 

requirements. A list of the State Plans and more 

information are available at: www.osha.gov/dcsp/osp. 

How Can OSHA Help?

Workers have a right to a safe workplace. If you 

think your job is unsafe or you have questions, 

contact OSHA at 1-800-321-OSHA (6742) or visit 

OSHA’s main web page at www.osha.gov. It’s 

confidential. We can help. 

For other valuable worker protection information, 

such as Workers’ Rights, Employer Responsibilities 

and other services OSHA offers, visit OSHA’s 

Workers’ page at www.osha.gov/workers.

For more information on Temporary Workers visit 

OSHA’s Temporary Workers’ page at www.osha.gov/

temp_workers.

Training requirements vary between industries and 

safety and health hazard exposures. Information 

on these requirements is available on the OSHA 

training website www.osha.gov/dte/library/materials_

library.html and in OSHA’s publication Training 

Requirements in OSHA Standards, www.osha.gov/

Publications/osha2254.pdf.

The OSH Act prohibits employers from retaliating 

against their employees for exercising their 

rights under the OSH Act. These rights include 

raising a workplace health and safety concern 

with the employer, reporting an injury or illness, 

filing an OSHA complaint, and participating in an 

inspection or talking to an inspector. If workers 

have been retaliated or discriminated against for 

exercising their rights, they must file a complaint 

with OSHA within 30 days of the alleged adverse 

action to preserve their rights under section 11(c) 

of the OSH Act. For more information, please visit 

www.whistleblowers.gov.

OSHA also provides help to employers. OSHA’s 

On-site Consultation Program offers free and 

confidential occupational safety and health 

services to small and medium-sized businesses in 

all states and several territories across the country, 

with priority given to high-hazard worksites. 

On-site Consultation services are separate from 

enforcement and do not result in penalties or 

citations. Consultants from state agencies or 

universities work with employers to identify 

workplace hazards, provide advice on compliance 

with OSHA standards, and assist in establishing 

and improving safety and health management 

systems. To locate the OSHA On-site Consultation 

Program nearest you, call 1-800-321-6742 (OSHA) 

or visit www.osha.gov/consultation.

Disclaimer: This bulletin is not a standard or regulation, and it creates no new legal obligations. It contains 

recommendations as well as descriptions of mandatory safety and health standards. The recommendations are 

advisory in nature, informational in content, and are intended to assist employers in providing a safe and healthful 

workplace. The Occupational Safety and Health Act requires employers to comply with safety and health standards 

and regulations promulgated by OSHA or by a state with an OSHA-approved state plan. In addition, the OSH Act’s 

General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1), requires employers to provide their employees with a workplace free from 

recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm.

For more information

Occupational

Safety and Health

Administration

www.osha.gov (800) 321-OSHA (6742) U.S. Department of Labor

OSHA 3859-04 2016