Temporary worker safety covers practices ensuring short-term or contract workers receive the same protections and training as permanent staff.
The policies and practices that ensure temporary, contract, or staffing-agency workers receive equivalent safety training, PPE, hazard communication, and supervision as permanent employees performing similar work, regardless of their employment status.
A warehouse hosting temporary staff during peak season provides the same forklift safety training and PPE to agency workers as it does to full-time employees, and confirms this training with the staffing agency in writing.
Both share responsibility under OSHA's "joint employer" framework: the staffing agency generally handles general safety training, while the host employer is responsible for site-specific hazards and controls.
Data has shown temporary workers can face elevated injury risk, often linked to unfamiliarity with a worksite's specific hazards and gaps in site-specific training.
Employers should typically document what training was provided, confirm receipt of any training completed by the staffing agency, and record site-specific orientation given to each temporary worker.
Part of SafetyIQ's EHS glossary: plain-English definitions of workplace health and safety terms.
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