Dual Employer Situations and Responsibilities
Dual employer situations exist when an employer hires workers and provides them as a workforce to another employer. Examples include temporary agencies, farm labor contractors, or other employee leasing companies. Whether the employer hires or contracts for employees, Cal/OSHA requires all employers to protect employee health and safety.
Both employers in a dual employer situation are responsible for protecting worker health and safety at different levels. The hiring company is considered the primary employer; it issues the employee’s paycheck, administers workers’ compensation insurance, and maintains hiring and firing authority, but usually does not supervise the employee on a day-to-day basis. The secondary employer contracts for the worker and supervises them at the worksite. Dual employer worksites differ from multi-employer worksites such as construction sites that involve workers from multiple contractors.
A primary employer must take reasonable steps to protect employee health and safety before contracting employees to a secondary employer, a difficult task when the primary employer usually has little or no control over the secondary employer’s worksite. Primary employers should adopt an Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP) and other required safety programs and provide employees with general and specific training and personal protective equipment (PPE). If a primary employer provides its employees with respirators, for example, the employer is required to adopt a Respiratory Protection Program and conduct medical evaluations and fit tests.
Primary employers can also review the secondary employer’s IIPP and other safety programs, include health and safety provisions in written contracts, and periodically inspect and monitor the secondary employer’s worksites. Primary employers should instruct employees on the supplemental training they may need from the secondary employer before they begin work. Employees should also be instructed to report unsafe working conditions immediately to both the primary and secondary employers and not to work at the secondary employer’s site if an imminent hazard is present.
Secondary employers should have an IIPP in place, identify the common job tasks and hazards at the worksite, and provide supplemental training and PPE to workers. In addition, they should adopt necessary safety programs such as hazard communication and emergency response, conduct and record regular site safety inspections, and communicate about safety with employees. The secondary employer is responsible for identifying and correcting worksite hazards.
The secondary employer records all injuries and illnesses of supervised employees on the Cal/OSHA 300 Log. The primary employer does not log injuries and illnesses occurring at the secondary worksite unless it supervises the employee on a day-to-day basis. Injuries and illnesses should only be recorded once.
Working together, primary and secondary employers can assure worker health and safety.
The above evaluations and/or recommendations are for general guidance only and should not be relied
upon for legal compliance purposes. They are based solely on the information provided to us and relate
only to those conditions specifically discussed. We do not make any warranty, expressed or implied, that your workplace is safe or healthful or that it complies with all laws, regulations or standards.
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