You should know: Your company is responsible for contractors

In November, TT&S held a training on contractors and OSHA's multiple-employer citation policy. It can be some pretty dry stuff, but the gist is that when your company hires a contractor, there's a lot of ways you're also responsible for that contractor's safety. There are a few variables involved in your particular risk profile when it comes to contractors, but here's a few main takeaways regardless of your situation:

• Employers must create and maintain a workplace free from hazards for both their own employees and any contractors' employees that come on site.
  
• If a contractor creates a hazard for your employees, you can be cited, depending on your knowledge of the hazard and whether you took reasonable steps to discover hazards.
• When working with contractors, just recognizing and informing them of a hazard or safety violation is not enough. To protect your company, you should have a graduated system of enforcement (first violation consequence, second violation consequence, etc), and you need to follow through while documenting each step.

 A lot of this headache can be alleviated by a couple things:

1. Having a strong safety program implemented in your company
2. Implementing a contractor vetting system to ensure your contractors also take safety seriously.

If you'd like to learn more specifics and get some examples of a contractor vetting program, let us know. We have a recorded training on this and would be glad to help you get started.