As Workers’ Memorial Day approaches, OSHA released a letter to encourage protection for temporary employees from workplace hazards. Worker’s Memorial Day is an annual holiday established to honor workers that have died on the job and to instill efforts to making work sites across the United States safer. The letter encouraged inspectors to start using a new code in their information system to note when temporary workers are exposed to health and safety violations.

Assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, Dr. David Michaels, said that Workers’ Memorial Day was intended to mourn and remember the thousands of workers who die annually on the job from preventable situations. OSHA has also started working with the American Staffing Association and businesses that use staffing agencies to encourage the best and safest practices to protect temporary workers.

Recently, OSHA has been receiving reports of fatal injuries to temporary workers and an alarming number of them have occurred on the first days of employment. OSHA has also issued citations when the business did not provide adequate safety training or protections.

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