Temporary & Leased Workers: Who Records and Who Trains? (1904.31)

Two Questions, One Root Cause

Construction runs on temporary, leased, and staffing-agency labor, and it generates two recurring compliance questions: when a temp gets hurt, whose OSHA 300 log does the injury go on? And before that, who owed the worker training? Both answers turn on the same idea: control. Whoever directs the work carries the duty.

At a glance: Recording follows day-to-day supervision: under 1904.31(b)(2) you record the injuries of the workers you supervise daily, which on most sites is the host employer, not the staffing agency, and the case is recorded only once (1904.31(b)(4)). Training is a shared duty: OSHA treats the staffing agency and host as jointly responsible, with the agency giving general safety training and the host giving site- and task-specific training. Under OSHA 1904.31, the employer that supervises a temporary worker day to day records any injury, usually the host employer; and the staffing agency and host share training, with the agency covering general safety and the host covering site-specific hazards.

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Recording: Follow the Day-to-Day Supervision (1904.31)

The recording rule is about who supervises, not who signs the paycheck. Section 1904.31(a) starts with your payroll: you record the recordable injuries and illnesses of all employees on it, "whether they are labor, executive, hourly, salary, part-time, seasonal, or migrant workers." It then adds the workers who are not on your payroll but whom you supervise on a day-to-day basis. Paragraph (b)(2) applies that rule to workers from a temporary help service, an employee leasing service or a personnel supply service, and (b)(3) applies it to a contractor's employees.

On a typical jobsite, the host employer (the GC or sub directing the temp's daily work) provides that supervision, so the host records the injury, not the staffing agency that placed the worker. The staffing agency, which does not direct the daily work, does not record it.

And it goes on one log. 1904.31(b)(4) answers the agency's question directly: it does not also record the cases you supervise. The two employers "should coordinate" so that each injury and illness is recorded only once, either on your 300 log (if you supervise day-to-day) or on the other employer's log. A double entry inflates both companies' rates. The two employers should confirm, up front, who is logging what.

What "day-to-day supervision" means

OSHA's recordkeeping FAQ 31-1 gives the test. Day-to-day supervision occurs when, "in addition to specifying the output, product or result to be accomplished by the person's work, the employer supervises the details, means, methods and processes by which the work is to be accomplished." OSHA's first Temporary Worker Initiative bulletin, on recordkeeping, puts it in field terms: an employer supervises day to day when it "controls conditions presenting potential hazards and directs the worker's activities around, and exposure to, those hazards."

Two consequences matter on a jobsite:

• An agency rep on site does not move the log. The same bulletin says the presence of a staffing agency representative at the host's worksite "does not necessarily transfer recordkeeping responsibilities to the staffing agency." In OSHA's example, a team lead hired by the agency to translate orders and track attendance, with no power to override the host's directions, is not a supervisor for recordkeeping.
• The agency still records the workers it supervises. Under FAQ 31-2, an agency that supervises its workers day to day records their cases, even when they work for an employer that is not covered by the recordkeeping rule.

Who is on nobody's log

Section 1904.31 also says who is out. If your business is a sole proprietorship or a partnership, the owner or partners are not employees for recordkeeping purposes (1904.31(a)). A self-employed person hurt while working at your site is not covered by the OSH Act or by Part 1904 (1904.31(b)(1)), so the case goes on no log.

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Training: A Joint Duty of Host and Agency

The most expensive myth in temp labor is "the staffing agency handles training." OSHA's Temporary Worker Initiative is explicit: staffing agencies and host employers are jointly responsible for a temporary worker's safety and health, because both share control over the worker. OSHA "could hold both the host and temporary employers responsible for the violative condition(s)," and that can include a lack of adequate training.

The practical split OSHA describes:

The host cannot outsource the site-specific piece. In construction, 1926.21(b)(2) requires the employer to instruct each employee "in the recognition and avoidance of unsafe conditions," and OSHA's construction bulletin (TWI Bulletin No. 15, 2025) says the host "is responsible for providing any training required by an OSHA standard that relates to the specific hazards found in the host employer's workplace." The same bulletin says training should be completed before the worker begins work and must be in a language and vocabulary the worker understands.

HazCom follows the same split. If your crew uses a product with a health hazard, the temp working beside them needs HazCom training at the time of initial assignment (1910.1200(h)(1); the note to 1926.59 makes the construction rule identical) and access to the SDS. OSHA's HazCom bulletin (TWI Bulletin No. 5) puts the primary responsibility for site-specific HazCom on the host and says the training given to temps "should be identical or equivalent" to what the host's own employees receive; the agency, at a minimum, gives generic HazCom training. OSHA's temporary worker page sums it up: "Host employers must treat temporary workers like any other workers in terms of training and safety and health protections." The two employers should communicate so nothing falls through the gap between "general" and "specific."

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A Construction Example From OSHA

OSHA's construction bulletin walks through a case. A masonry contractor with 400 workers takes 20 temporary workers from a staffing agency to erect and dismantle scaffolding and keep mortar and brick moving to the masons. The contractor's foreman trains them, in each worker's primary language, on erecting and dismantling scaffolding, mixing concrete and the PPE required on site, but not on the fall protection needed when guardrails are not in place. On the fourth day, a temp removes the cross bracing and guardrail to reach a mortar trough lifted by a forklift, overreaches and falls about 14 feet. He is hospitalized with fractures to his arms and legs.

OSHA's analysis puts both employers at risk of citations. The host, which supervised and controlled the temps' daily work, failed to provide the site-specific training and the fall protection the scaffold work called for. The agency gave only information about duties, breaks, physical requirements and shift hours, with no general safety and health training, and it did not ask what training the host had in place.

The records follow the same supervision. The host supervises day to day, so the case goes on the host's 300 log within seven calendar days of learning of it (1904.31(b)(2); 1904.29(b)(3)), and the host reports the in-patient hospitalization to OSHA within 24 hours (1904.39(a)(2)). OSHA's FAQ 39-9 gives that reporting duty to the employer that provides day-to-day supervision, "similar to the requirements in section 1904.31." The agency keeps the case off its own log and stays informed.

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The Multi-Employer Worksite Tie-In

Temp labor lives inside OSHA's multi-employer worksite doctrine. On a shared site, OSHA can cite a creating, exposing, correcting, or controlling employer. A host that controls the site and a staffing agency that controls the worker can each be on the hook, so the cleanest protection is a contract that spells out who trains, who supervises, who provides PPE, and who records. OSHA recommends exactly that: the agency and the host should set out their respective responsibilities for compliance with the applicable standards in their contract. See the multi-employer citation doctrine for how those four roles are assigned.

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Put It in the Contract

Ambiguity is what gets cited. Before the first temp sets foot on site, the host-agency agreement should state:

• Who records injuries (the host, in almost every day-to-day-supervision case) and who reports a fatality or severe injury to OSHA (the same employer, per FAQ 39-9).
• Who provides general vs. site-specific training, and how completion is documented.
• Who supplies PPE and hazard-specific equipment.
• How incidents are reported between the companies, and who files the 301. OSHA's recordkeeping bulletin recommends notification procedures so that when a worker tells one employer, the other learns of it too.
• How employee counts are handled for each company's own recordkeeping thresholds.
• How hours are shared. The host's annual summary counts the hours worked by the temps it supervises (OSHA FAQ 32-1, under 1904.32), so the agency's time records feed the host's 300A.

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Common Mistakes

• Assuming the agency records the injury. If you supervise the temp day-to-day, it's your 300 log (1904.31(b)(2)).
• Double-recording the same case on both logs (1904.31(b)(4) says once).
• Waiting for the agency to call OSHA. The employer that supervises day to day reports a hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye within 24 hours (1904.39(a)(2); FAQ 39-9).
• Skipping HazCom for temps. Site chemicals mean site HazCom for everyone on the crew.
• Treating temps as second-class. OSHA requires equal training and protection.
• No written split of duties, so both companies assume the other did it.

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The standard, tools & related reading

• The standard: Covered employees, 29 CFR 1904.31 · OSHA FAQ 31-1 · OSHA Temporary Worker Initiative · Recordkeeping hub
• Neighboring sections: 1904.29, the forms and the 7-day rule · 1904.30, multiple establishments · 1904.32, the annual summary
• On the job: HazCom Training Record · Multi-Employer Responsibility Matrix · Recordability Decision Tree
• Related reading: OSHA 300 Log Requirements · Reporting a fatality or severe injury in 8 or 24 hours · Multi-employer worksite citation doctrine · OSHA safety training requirements

On a mixed crew, "not my employee" is not a defense: control decides both the log and the training, and OSHA can look to either company.