Who is Responsible For Contractor Safety?

Contractor safety management is a major concern for any safety conscious company, and for good reason. Every year, there are thousands of workplace accidents that put a heavy strain on businesses and their people. With so many roles and responsibilities involved in running a business, this raises the question, who is responsible for contractor safety? Is it the contractor themselves? The company who operates the worksite where contractors work? The government?

In this blog post, we will explore the different stakeholders involved in ensuring good management of contractor safety and their respective roles. We will also discuss some of the challenges that need to be addressed in order to improve safety for your company as a whole.

Who’s Responsible for Your Safety Program?

There are a variety of ways in which you can approach your safety program, and it is important to determine who is responsible for tracking each aspect of that system. An accounting of safety and health responsibilities should be a top priority for your organization. The proper assignment of roles and responsibilities is crucial to the success of your business.

The first step in tracking your safety program is to identify the goals associated with following a certain program, and what is expected of you to upkeep safety in the workplace. Once you have done this, you can then move on to determining who will be responsible for tracking the progress of the safety program. This person will need to ensure that all required training is completed by contractors, as well as keep track of any changes or updates to the safety program.

Once you have determined who will be responsible for tracking your safety program, it is important to communicate this information to all employees. This way, everyone knows who to go to with questions or concerns about the safety program. Additionally, this person should be easily accessible so that workers can get in touch with them when necessary.

Contractor Supervision

When contractors are on site, the question most often asked is “who is responsible for supervising their work to ensure that they conduct themselves in a safe manner?” Is there a plant supervisor on site, are they watched by a site manager, or are they left to their own accord? The answer to this question ultimately states that everyone holds a certain degree of responsibility. Contractors and their workers are fully expected to know how to conduct themselves under the standards defined by their host organization as well as any regulations set out by government ruling bodies.

Contractors are also responsible for adhering to safety policies at the host employer’s worksite. However, the onus is on the host employer to ensure that contractors go through an induction and orientation process so they can learn the host employer’s safety policies, and precautions to follow while they’re on site. The host employer also needs to ensure that contractors have the licenses, certifications and training needed to conduct work before they arrive on site. E.g., if contractors will be operating powered industrial trucks (PITs), they need to have completed a formal training and evaluation program, including satisfactory completing of a driving test.

When a host organization invites third parties to their site, they assume risk and responsibility and are accountable for any site-specific hazards the contractors may face. Contractors are responsible for understanding the proper usage of and safe handling of any equipment or chemicals they bring on site, but the host employer must inform them of the specific hazards of their worksite. Companies are expected to also provide workers with the proper onboarding procedures prior to starting work. However, as previously stated, the company’s obligations do not in turn relieve contractors from their duties as responsible workers. In fact, OSHA states, “To the extent that a subcontractor of any tier agrees to perform any part of the contract, he also assumes responsibility for complying with the standards in this part with respect to that part”.

Injury and Illness Recording and Reporting

The responsibility to record (or in some cases, report) workplace injuries and illnesses depends on who is responsible for day-to-day supervision of contractors at your worksite. OSHA has outlined three scenarios to help delineate responsibilities under the Recordkeeping Standard for recording workplace injuries and illnesses.

1) Under Section 1904.31(a), Employers are responsible for overseeing and recording all injury/illness cases if they are the day-to-day supervisors of the work conducted.

2) Similarly, section 1904.21(b)(3) requires that contractors are held responsible for reporting injuries and illnesses if the contractor’s employees are under their day-to-day supervision.

3) Lastly, if another employer oversees a contractor’s work, they are responsible for record keeping illnesses and injuries.

Simply put, the responsibility of reporting workplace injuries and illnesses often falls on whoever is appointed as the day-to-day supervisor of a worksite and the workers present.

Remember, too, that if you as host employer are responsible for recording injuries and illnesses of at least some contractors, you may also need to report certain severe incidents, including those involving fatalities (within 8 hours), or any incidents involving hospitalization of one or more employees, loss of eye, or amputation of body parts (all within 24 hours).

Providing Training and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Employers are responsible for and are expected to provide their employees with the necessary training and PPE needed to perform their duties, always remembering that PPE should be provided as a last resort when more effective measures such as elimination/substitution of hazards, engineering, or administrative controls have not reduced exposures to acceptable levels.

In a scenario where a contracted company is hired to work for an organization, the organization and prime contractor are tasked with ensuring that everyone present on the job is adequately trained to carry out the tasks that they are expected to perform.

Oftentimes, confusion arises around the topic of PPE. OSHA has a clearly defined answer through their final rule enacted in 2008. Their ruling states that employers are solely responsible for providing and paying for the necessary PPE for their workers. Some exceptions to this rule may apply, such as, if certain equipment that is requested has not been mandatory before, or if certain equipment isn’t listed as a general statutory requirement

Why Safety is a Shared Responsibility

The responsibility of safety depends on shared responsibility between the host employer and contractor. OSHA has specified that in multi-employer scenarios, each employer focuses on the aspects of safety under their specific control.

Many worksites have highly hazardous job tasks, such as work at heights, hot work (e.g., welding, brazing, and torch cutting), and work in hazardous atmosphere confined spaces. It’s challenging to ensure awareness and visibility of all of these projects, including documentation that proper reviews and approvals have occurred before the work is conducted. Adding to the management difficulties, contractors perform many hazardous job tasks, which creates a need to ensure that each contractor has the appropriate training and documentation before arriving on site.

You’ll be better prepared to meet your responsibilities by focusing on developing and maintaining an internal team responsible for managing plant safety, including aspects of contractor safety such as vetting contractors, processing documents such as OSHA logs and certificates of insurance, managing permits to work for highly hazardous tasks such as work at heights or hot work (e.g., welding, cutting and brazing) and providing onboarding and induction. Of course, contractor management has a lot of moving parts, so you’ll want to make sure you have the support you need to manage contractor safety effectively.

Conclusion

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of who is responsible for contractor safety. Whether you’re an environmental health and safety specialist or a third-party worker, the responsibility of contractor safety is often a shared effort that requires more than one party to participate in a sound safety program. In some cases, it may be the responsibility of the contractor themselves, while in others it may fall to the company they are working for. Ultimately, it is important to ensure that all parties involved in a project are aware of their responsibilities and are taking steps to ensure the safety of everyone involved.

Let VelocityEHS Help!

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You’ll get an efficient platform for onboarding/induction of contractors and providing an electronic permit to work management system, and real-time visibility of all projects at the site. Vēlo, powered by VelocityAI, also helps you process contractor OSHA logs and certificates of insurance up to 7 times faster through AI/ML. You’ll be able to cut administrative work by 90% and more proactively manage safety for your payroll employees as well as contractors, vendors and visitors.

Ready to learn more? Set up a meeting to see for yourself how our software can level up your contractor management.