Mid-summer means beach parties, picnics … and seasonal and temporary employees.

It’s easy to see why. The jobs of vacationing employees have to be covered. Seasonal businesses are going full blast. But even throughout the year, there are sudden workload increases that require extra hands on the oars. Temporary or seasonal workers are a seemingly ideal solution.

Are there any risks in employing temporary employees?

That question was discussed in a special BLR audio conference on seasonals and temporaries. Speakers were Laura E. Innes, an employment law attorney with Simpson, Garrity & Innes, and Drew Langevin, a management consultant. Both are based in San Francisco.

The conference began by listing sources of what are generically called “contingent workers.” Most, said the speakers, come from temp agencies or professional employer organizations (“PEOs”). These groups recruit and compensate the workers and ensure their employment complies with applicable law. Another source is employee leasing agencies, which do the same except for the recruiting, which the client company does.

Your responsibilities to temporary employees

Your company has responsibilities to temporary workers, even though you’re not directly paying them. “When you bring on someone’s employees, they are also your employees,” said Innes. “This is something employers often forget.”

She explained that if workers are directed and controlled by you, you’ve formed a joint employer relationship with the sourcing agency. You and the agency are both responsible for ensuring that temps are covered by workers’ comp and wage/hour standards and that they have an I-9, W-4 and Social Security number on file. You also need to be sure that the agency has not improperly classified employees as exempt under FLSA rules when they shouldn’t be.

You are not required to offer contingent workers the same benefits as employees, the speakers noted, but you need to be careful that they don’t become eligible for benefits without your intending it. “Look at how your plans define eligibility,” said Innes. “If it just says ‘employee,’ you’ve left yourself wide open. Instead, have it read ‘employees on the payroll to whom we issue a W-2.’”

Both speakers emphasized the need for supervisors to make contingent workers aware of dress codes, safety and security standards, rules on access to data, and other policies that apply to them, perhaps through a contingent worker handbook. Langevin noted that such a document would help your legal defense if you are sued over trouble a temp worker caused. “They couldn’t say ‘I wasn’t told about that,’” he said.

The conference concluded with advice on bringing in student interns, a common summer practice. “If the intern simply ‘shadows’ employees, learning what they do,” said Innes, “none of the employment laws apply. But if they do anything of value … even answer a phone … then all the laws apply.”

What this points up again is how important it is for supervisors to have a full working knowledge of employment law. We’d like to recommend a way to help them get it.

Have them join you in attending BLR’s 90-minute, August 21 webinar, Employment Law Basics for Supervisors: Get Your “First Line of Defense” Up to Speed on What They Need to Know.

The presenter is well-known employment law attorney Todd H. Stanton of the Atlanta firm of Powell Goldstein, LLP. Stanton focuses especially on preventive practices, which, unless you like going to court, is exactly what you need. He’ll emphasize the most common legal errors supervisors make, the best practices they can apply, the trouble zones (e.g. wage and hour, harassment and discrimination) to avoid, and even the finer points of knotty laws like the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

Equally important, he’ll take your supervisors’ questions in real time. Just e-mail or phone them in. And, like all BLR webinars, your satisfaction is assured or you get a full refund.
Can’t attend that date? Preorder the webinar CD, which you can play over and over as new supervisors come on board … even if they’re temporary.