Employers’ increasing reliance on temporary employees poses additional risks to workers across the country. The fact that employment in the temporary help services has doubled over the last two decades has had a significant and negative impact on the safety and health of workers.
The reason boils down to companies having little financial incentive to ensure that temporary workers are taken care of. OSHA law doesn’t apply to workers classified as self-employed and employers are not responsible for paying workers’ compensation insurance premiums for workers hired through a third party.
Temporary workers are at a higher risk of injury because companies may not invest in training temporary staffers on safety measures, and just the temporary nature of their assignment lands workers in unfamiliar, and therefore, potentially dangerous work environments. In fact, in industries such as construction and manufacturing, studies reveal that temp workers had substantially higher rates of injuries when compared to their permanently employed counterparts.
Although the American workplace is far safer than it use to be – 1970 had 38 worker fatalities a day compared to the current rate of 12 deaths per day – there is more work to be done. Protecting all workers, temporary and permanent, should be job number one.
If you have suffered a Iowa workplace injury, contact the personal injury workers’ compensation attorneys of Stoltze & Stoltze PLC for help today.
