Recording injuries of contract workers under day-to-day supervision

OSHA archive notice: "This is an OSHA Archive Document, and may no longer represent OSHA Policy. It is presented here as historical content, for research and review purposes only."

March 6, 2000

Mr. Ronnie Collins

Safety Manager

Thrall Car Manufacturing Company

[Recipient address omitted]

Dear Mr. Collins:

This letter is in response to your letter addressed to Mr. Benjamin Ross of the Atlanta Regional Office, requesting an interpretation regarding the proper recording of injuries and illnesses which occur to contract workers at your site. Mr. Ross forwarded your letter to my staff for response.

For OSHA injury and illness recordkeeping purposes, when deciding who should record work related injuries and illnesses of contract workers, the primary factor to be considered is who supervises these workers on a day-to-day basis. If the workers are subject to the supervision of the using firm, the using firm must enter recordable injuries and illnesses of those workers onto its OSHA 200 Log. (See Q&A A-2 on page 24 of the Recordkeeping Guidelines for Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.) Additionally, the degree of supervision necessary to require maintenance of the injury/illness records is stated on page 24, Q&A A-1. "Employee status generally exists when the employer supervises not only the output, product or result to be accomplished by the person's work, but also the details, means, methods and processes by which the work objective is accomplished."

The scenario presented in your letter does not provide us with enough detail to make a definitive statement regarding which company would have responsibility for recording injuries and illnesses experienced by the contract employees. In your letter you state, "In most cases these contract employees will not have day to day supervision from superintendents (during this thirty day period). Any safety, employment, or disciplinary action is handled by the on-site supervisor." While information concerning who handles safety, employment, and disciplinary actions can be an indicator of employee status, the primary factor to consider under the criteria in the Recordkeeping Guidelines would be who directs the employee's work activities. Without the information concerning who directs the work activities, we cannot directly answer your question.

However, we provide the following guidance for helping you to make the determination on whether you should record injuries and illnesses experienced by these contract workers on your OSHA Log. If the worker is working as part of a "self directed team" which provides the details, means, methods and processes by which the work objective is accomplished, this would indicate that the day to day supervision is coming from Thrall Car and Thrall Car has the responsibility for recording the workers' occupational injuries and illnesses on its Log. If, however, workers were working independently from the team and the contract supervisor was providing the day to day supervision for the details, means, methods and processes by which the work objective is accomplished, then Thrall Car would not be responsible for recording the workers' occupational injuries and illnesses on its Log.

I hope you find this information useful. If you have any further questions, please contact the Division of Recordkeeping Requirements at Area Code (202) 693-1702.

Sincerely,

Cheryle A. Greenaugh

Director

Directorate of Information Technology