What are temporary agency employers required to do to meet HazCom requirements?

Staffing agencies and host employers share control over temporary employees, and are therefore jointly responsible for ensuring that these employees are effectively informed and trained regarding exposure to hazardous chemicals.

As a recommended practice, the staffing agency and host employer should discuss responsibility for each aspect of hazard communication training and inform the other employer when the hazard communication training is completed. The details of the particular training to be performed can be clearly stated in the language of the contract between the employers and in the host employer’s written hazard communication program.

Staffing agencies must, at a minimum, provide generic hazard communication information and training to their employees to explain HazCom requirements applicable to different occupational settings that the temporary employees are expected to encounter. The training should include information on labels and other forms of warning, the format and content of safety data sheets (SDSs), and other employee information and training required by HazCom. Workers should be trained so that they have a basic ability to identify potentially hazardous chemicals, and staffing agencies must ensure that their employees understand their rights whenever hazardous chemicals are present in their work area.

The host employer holds the primary responsibility for providing site-specific hazard communication information and training on chemical hazards in the workplace to temporary employees since it uses or produces the hazardous chemicals and creates and controls the work process. The host employer is therefore best suited to inform employees of the chemical hazards specific to the workplace environment through site-specific training. This responsibility includes identifying and communicating information about worksite-specific chemical hazards, ensuring appropriate labeling of chemical containers, providing access to SDSs, and providing appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). The HazCom training provided to temporary workers should be identical or equivalent to the training given to the host employers’ own employees