From Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA), George Reardon discusses joint employment and offers suggestions for clients and staffing firms for allocating the risks. George writes:
Federal agencies in recent years have repeatedly tried to use joint employment to increase the government’s ability to deem the employees of service-providing firms as the employees of their customers for purposes of labor, employment, safety, tax and benefit laws. As a result, many enterprise organizations and contingent workforce programs fear it, deny it and try to shift associated risks to their staffing providers. Yet the practical reality is that virtually all contingent staffing (temporary help) is joint employment.
And that’s a good thing. The fact is, joint employment through staffing benefits buyers of staffing services, staffing firms, assigned employees and even the public. There is no reason to deny it or to eliminate it. The question is not whether joint employment in staffing exists — it does — but how well contingent workforce prgrams and their staffing providers manage it.
The law, unmodified by contracts, is not good at fairly allocating the responsibilities of joint employment. It can impose liability on staffing firms or their clients for aspects of joint employment over which they have no control. Exposures that are not well managed can cause “bet-the-company” losses. But there’s where contracts come into play.
And the most effective tool for properly aligning the risks and responsibilities of the CW program and its staffing providers is the staffing agreement between them.
Read the full story at: Why you shouldn’t fear joint employment | Staffing Industry Analysts