While the extent of the legal liability of recruitment agencies and host employers depends on the specific circumstances of each case, recruitment agencies and employers are jointly responsible for maintaining a safe working environment for temporary workers – including, for example, ensuring that OSHA`s training requirements, risk communication and registration are respected. In general, however, you can avoid payroll tasks if people are taken care of by a temporary help or recruitment agency, even if you hired them yourself. You may be able to exclude temporary workers from your pension plans even if you are a joint employer, but you may need to include them in your “count” for coverage purposes and under certain laws, such as discrimination laws, if they have been with you for more than a year. Some staffing agencies may experience problems when they prevent workers from working overtime. An agency that does not pay workers overtime or misclassifies them as exempt workers may be violating the Fair Labour Standards Act. Lack of staff is no excuse for poor care. Human resources employees are employed by a recruitment company, but they work for staffing clients. It is essential that the recruitment company and the client understand their roles and responsibilities with respect to staffing. ASA literally wrote the book on the subject.
In these cases, the Agency may reaffirm the recruitment agencies` commitment to providing employees with a harassment-free workplace. Recruitment agencies should never ignore all discussions about discrimination and harassment. It is in their interest to provide their employees with the same workplace protection as any other employer. Employees` obligations to the employer are not clearly explained, but if the employer is obliged to pay good wages, to create a good work environment, then employees must provide good service on time, have a good relationship with the employer. The legal consequences would be concluded in order to obtain appropriate liability in case of harassment in co-employer situations. Each case is unique and should be treated as such. Based on existing case law and general principles of negligence, recruitment agencies may be held liable for harassment that occurs in the placement service, even if the harasser is not an employee of the agency, if it has been shown that the agency acted negligently during the placement. This could mean that they knew or should have known about the harassment and did not immediately correct the situation under their control. However, if the recruitment agency does not employ the harasser, the corrective measures the recruitment agency can take are limited. For example, the recruitment agency could not fire the person or transfer them to another location.
The common law rule that defines an employee applies even if you give the employee some freedom of action. What matters is that if you have the right to control the method of services – the how, when and where – and not just the results. A key concept is that every employer should consider the hazards they can prevent and correct and be able to comply with OSHA standards. For example, employment agencies may offer general safety and health training, and host employers offer specific training tailored to the particular equipment or hazards of the workplace. Whether or not a company is subject to certain labor laws usually depends on the number of employees in that company and its duration. There are a variety of federal and state laws, and in some states, it only takes one employee to subject you to certain labor laws. Therefore, in order to establish your legal liability as an employer, you must first understand how an employee is defined for these purposes. According to the American Staffing Association, misclassification of employees is a “hot topic” regarding recruitment agencies, as many states are struggling financially and trying to claw back revenue from various companies that have low-ranking workers. Many companies classify employees as independent contractors because of the reduced responsibilities and tax obligations associated with this category of workers. However, the government has an interest in ensuring that workers are properly classified, as independent contractors are less likely to file taxes for the self-employed than other types of workers.
Employers and recruitment agencies have a role to play in ensuring compliance with health and safety requirements in the workplace and are jointly responsible for ensuring the safety and health of workers.