ASA Staffing Success - November

out the case in a speech to the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health. He cited a number of tragic incidents to help demonstrate the need for OSHA to have closer ties to the staffing industry.

“Worker wellness and safety have long been a top priority of ASA and its member companies,” says ASA’s Wahlquist. He agrees that strategic ties with OSHA should work toward increased training and enhance outreach and communication among staffing firms and their clients.

Dwyer notes that OSHA’s interest in temporary
worker safety and its alliance with ASA gives the
staffing industry an essential voice at the federal
level. “ASA members now will have easy access to
resources that they can share with clients, to help
educate them—and ensure that clients are meeting
their responsibilities,” Dwyer explains. “And those
resources will come from a government agency, so
they carry some weight. There is now an authorita-
tive party setting forth these responsibilities, and
that can only help staffing firms in conducting
their business.”
Cannon at IES Custom Staffing agrees, but
offers a real-world staffing firm perspective as well.

“You have a lot of clients who are scared to death of OSHA,” Cannon says. “You just drop OSHA’s name and clients will say okay to whatever you want. The point here is not to intimidate but to motivate all players to get together on the same page. Rather than working against each other, now we can solidify this as a partnership between us and the client—and, ultimately, OSHA.”

Positioning for Ongoing Success

Industry professionals have praised ASA for forging the kind of high-level ties with OSHA that no one staffing company could achieve on its own. The association’s leadership also continues to play a critical role in helping OSHA understand the industry.

For example, OSHA regulations show that the
party who supervises day-to-day work is respon-
sible for site-specific training and the availability of
safety equipment. “That is an essential responsibil-
ity of the client,” Dwyer notes. “By including that
in the contract it reminds and maybe even informs
the client of that responsibility. The contract ideally
should accurately reflect each party’s responsibility
under the law.”
While this has always been true, it often
has fallen to the staffing firm to spell out the situ-
ation. Absent of any outside pressure, clients have
made safety a subject of negotiations. With closer
ties to OSHA, staffing firms should be better
equipped to forge contracts that are appropriate
within the law.

Looking toward the future, ASA leaders and OSHA executives alike say they foresee an evolving relationship, one in which every player grows in knowledge and understanding, making for a safer workplace and a better business environment for all. n

Adam Stone, a freelance writer based in Annapolis, MD, is a regular contributor to Staffing Success. Send feedback on this article to succes@americanstaffing. net. Follow ASA on Twitter @Staffing Tweets.

OSHA Website Targets Temporary Worker Safety

Visit OSHA’s “Protecting Temporary Workers” website at osha.gov/ temp_workers. The site features articles and resources that focus on the joint responsibility of staffing firms and clients to maintain safe work environments for temporary workers.

“Many staffing firms take employee safety very seriously and have robust safety programs to ensure their well-being. Where there may be room for improvement is with clients who perhaps out of ignorance do not have the same level of concern with respect to temporary worker safety as they do for their own internal workers’ safety.”