Temporary Worker Initiative

Personal Protective Equipment

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 (also 

known as the host employer) are joint employers 

of those workers. Both employers are responsible 

to some degree for determining the conditions of 

employment and for complying with the law. In this 

joint employment structure, questions regarding 

which employer is responsible for particular safety 

and health protections are common. This bulletin 

addresses how to identify who is responsible for 

providing personal protective equipment (PPE)

pursuant to the PPE Hazard Assessment conducted 

for task(s) the workers will be performing, as well as 

training necessary for temporary workers. PPE may 

include items such as gloves; safety glasses and 

shoes; earplugs or muffs; hard hats; respirators; or 

coveralls, vests, and full body suits.

OSHA requires the use of PPE to minimize 

worker exposure to hazards when engineering, 

administrative controls, and work practices are 

not feasible or effective in reducing exposures 

to acceptable levels. Employers must conduct a 

hazard assessment to determine if PPE should be 

used to protect their workers and what type of PPE 

is appropriate, including any necessary respiratory 

protection. 29 CFR 1910.132. Employers must also 

provide training to workers who are required to 

use PPE and they must ensure that defective or 

damaged equipment is not used. In some instances, 

such as when respiratory protection is used, medical 

evaluations may be required. See 29 CFR 1910.134 

for specific requirements for respiratory protection.

Employers must provide and ensure the 

proper use and maintenance of PPE when it is 

required by OSHA standards or by the employer. 

Proper maintenance includes cleaning and 

decontaminating PPE, and sanitizing shared PPE. 

As joint employers of temporary workers, both 

the host employer and the staffing agency are 

responsible for ensuring that adequate PPE and 

associated training is provided. The host employer

will usually have the primary responsibility for 

selecting, providing and ensuring the use of 

adequate PPE for the process(es) or operation(s) to 

which workers have been assigned because: 

•	 The host employer is most familiar with the 

workplace hazards that the temporary workers 

will encounter. 

•	 The host employer generally controls the 

workplace hazards and the worker’s activities 

around, and interaction with, those hazards. 

•	 The host employer is usually best situated to 

perform the hazard assessment required for 

determining if PPE is necessary and will likely 

have already done so for its permanent staff. 

29 CFR 1910.132(d).

TWI BULLETIN NO. 2
The staffing agency shares responsibility for its 

workers’ safety and must take reasonable steps 

to ensure that the host employer conducts the 

appropriate hazard assessment and provides 

adequate PPE. To this end, the staffing agency 

should become familiar with the hazards at 

the host employer’s worksite and maintain 

communication with its workers and the host 

employer. Such pre-planning and ongoing 

communication also alerts the staffing agency to 

persistent or newly-created workplace hazards 

that may need to be addressed.

Employers must provide training to each worker 

who is required to use PPE. The training must 

teach, at minimum, when PPE is necessary; what 

EXAMPLE SCENARIO

A metal equipment manufacturer, Metal Works Co. (MWC), needs lathe operators for a short-term 

increase in production. The company contracts with Industrial Staffing to provide workers to work 

shifts on a temporary basis. Industrial Staffing hires ten workers and sends them to work at MWC. 

When a lathe is operated, metal splinters can fly off and hit the worker. There is no mention of 

PPE in MWC’s contract with Industrial Staffing and no safety glasses are provided to the workers. 

A week later, a temporary worker mentions to an Industrial Staffing representative that safety 

glasses have not been provided. When Industrial Staffing discusses this with MWC, MWC refuses 

to supply the glasses.

Analysis:

Because an eye injury hazard exists, adequate PPE must be provided to both the permanent 

and temporary lathe workers by their employer(s). Because MWC controls the lathe, supervises 

and controls the day-to-day work of the temporary employees, and is, overall, best situated to 

control the hazard, MWC is also best positioned to select, provide, and maintain adequate PPE for 

those operating and working in the vicinity of the lathes and therefore may be subject to OSHA 

citations. Industrial Staffing, in turn, should be familiar with MWC’s operation and the specific 

work that the temporary workers are doing. The staffing agency must take reasonable steps to 

ensure that MWC is providing adequate PPE and can do so by communicating with MWC and the 

temporary workers. Thus, as should happen, here the staffing agency discovered MWC’s lapse 

in safety protection reasonably quickly and, upon discovery, immediately addressed the issue 

with MWC. If MWC continues to refuse to provide the PPE, Industrial Staffing has the choice 

of supplying the PPE itself or withdrawing its workers from the site. If Industrial Staffing does 

neither, it may also be subject to OSHA citations.

If MWC did not want to be the provider of PPE, it could have initially negotiated with Industrial 

Staffing for the staffing agency to provide the safety glasses (and any other necessary PPE) 

so long as MWC ensured that the PPE provided by Industrial Staffing was adequate for the 

worksite’s hazards. MWC should understand, however, that in this scenario, with its knowledge 

and control over the hazards and workers as outlined above, the host itself holds primary 

responsibility for providing the PPE because it is in a better position to do so. 

Should OSHA discover that the workers are using the lathe without eye protection, both 

employers may be subject to OSHA citations. Because MWC itself has primary responsibility for 

providing the PPE, by neither providing PPE nor having the staffing agency supply the PPE, MWC 

would be subject to OSHA citations. By failing to a) establish that MWC would provide PPE, and 

b) diligently act to maintain communication with MWC and the workers to ensure that PPE was 

actually being provided, Industrial Staffing could also be subject to OSHA citations.
PPE is necessary; how to properly don, doff, 

adjust, and wear the PPE; the limitations of the 

PPE; and the proper care, maintenance, useful life, 

and disposal of the PPE. See 29 CFR 1910.132(f) 

and other applicable standards. As above, both 

the host employer and the staffing agency are 

responsible for ensuring the provision of PPE 

training. For the same reasons, the host employer 

is often best situated to provide the PPE, as well 

as to provide the training.

Neither the host nor the staffing agency can 

require workers to provide or pay for their own 

PPE.1 Employers cannot avoid their obligations 

under the standard by requiring their workers to 

purchase PPE as a condition of employment or 

placement, nor can employers deduct the cost of 

PPE from the workers’ wages.

The staffing agency and the host employer may 

agree to have the staffing agency supply some 

or all of the PPE and provide PPE training as 

long as the host employer ensures that the PPE 

is appropriate for the worker’s assigned tasks, 

and that it is provided at no cost to the worker. 

Such an agreement should be made during the 

pre-planning meeting(s) and detailed in writing. 

However, neither employer may escape liability 

for its ultimate responsibilities under the OSH 

Act by requiring another party to perform those 

responsibilities. Both employers may still be 

liable if adequate PPE and training is ultimately 

not provided to the workers, regardless of which 

employer agreed to provide the PPE and training. 

PPE requirements vary between industries 

and according to applicable OSHA standards. 

Information on these requirements is 

available on OSHA’s Personal Protective 

Equipment (PPE) page (www.osha.gov/

SLTC/personalprotectiveequipment). Further 

information on protecting temporary workers 

is available at the OSHA Protecting Temporary 

Workers website (www.osha.gov/temp_workers).

1. There are very specific exceptions to this rule. To see the list of PPE 

and the circumstances under which the employer is not required to 

provide it, see 29 CFR 1910.132(h) and 29 CFR 1926.95(d). 

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

own OSHA-approved occupational safety and health 

programs. These state plans have and enforce their 

own occupational safety and health standards that 

must be at least as effective as OSHA’s, but may 

have different or additional requirements. A list of 

the state plans and more information is 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). 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 

(www.osha.gov/workers).

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). For more 

information, please visit www.whistleblowers.gov.

OSHA also provides help to employers. OSHA’s 

On-site Consultation Program (www.osha.gov/

consultation) offers free and confidential advice to 

small and medium-sized businesses in all states 

across the country, with priority given to highhazard worksites. For more information or for 

additional compliance assistance, contact OSHA 

at 1-800-321-OSHA (6742), or visit our website at 

www.osha.gov. 
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

www.osha.gov (800) 321-OSHA (6742)

Occupational

Safety and Health

Administration

U.S. Department of Labor

OSHA 3780-03 2015