April Meeting – Safety for Temporary Workers

Robert Lewellen is the Chief Safety Officer for EmployBridge, the largest industrial staffing company in North America. He has 20 years’ experience as an OSH professional, with 18 years in the temporary staffing industry.  In Robert’s words, “My opinion of temporary staffing was very different before starting my career with my current employer, which is now the largest industry staffing company in North America.” Robert is a member of the American Staffing Association’s Safety Committee and was chosen to be on the ASA/OSHA Alliance Implementation Team.  As a result, he was intimately involved with the development and implementation of the alliance between the ASA and OSHA, and has been working with OSHA on the agency’s Temporary Worker Initiative

This presentation will give the attendees a unique perspective on safety in the temporary staffing industry and OSHA’s initiative to protect temporary workers.

The presentation will cover:

• The history of temporary staffing in the US
• Statistics on the use of temporary workers in the US
• The lack of injury, illness and fatality statistics for temporary workers and why
• Views on safety within the staffing industry before OSHA’s initiative
• The history of OSHA’s initiative
• What OSHA is doing to protect temporary workers
• The joint responsibility for protecting temporary workers between staffing companies and host employers
• What OSHA compliance officers are inspecting as part of the initiative
• Examples of inspection results related to the initiative
• What host employers should be doing to protect their temporary workers and ensure compliance with OSHA
• What to look for in a staffing provider to ensure protection of temporary workers and compliance with OSHA
• What is the staffing industry doing to protect their temporary workers
• Details on the alliance between ASA and OSHA
• What’s next for the initiative