Temporary workers help keep Charlotte businesses moving. Warehouses bring them in during busy seasons. Construction companies use them for specific projects. Manufacturers, offices, hospitality businesses, and other employers rely on staffing agencies when they need extra hands without immediately adding permanent employees.
But the arrangement can become confusing when a temporary worker gets hurt.
A worker might receive a paycheck from a staffing agency while spending every shift at another company’s facility. The host company might control the worker’s schedule, provide the equipment, and supervise the work. After an accident, the worker can be left wondering which company is actually responsible for the workers’ compensation claim.
North Carolina law has rules for these situations, but the answer depends on how the employment relationship is structured.
A Temp Worker Can Have More Than One Employer for Workers’ Comp Purposes
In a typical staffing arrangement, the staffing agency hires the worker and assigns that person to another business. North Carolina law recognizes that temporary help services establish an employer-employee relationship with the workers they place.
That does not necessarily mean the staffing company is the only employer that matters after an injury.
North Carolina courts recognize what is known as the “special employment” doctrine. Under certain circumstances, the company where the employee is actually performing the work can also be considered an employer for workers’ compensation purposes.
That is why injured workers should look beyond the name printed on their paycheck. Someone dealing with a disputed or complicated claim can also speak with a workers’ compensation attorney, such as Waple & Houk, about how the employment arrangement affects the claim.
Whether the host business qualifies as a special employer generally depends on factors such as whether:
● The worker expressly or implicitly agreed to work for the host company
● The work being performed was essentially the host company’s work
● The host company had the right to control the details of the worker’s job
When the required conditions are met, both the staffing company and host company can potentially have employer status under North Carolina workers’ compensation law.
So Who Actually Provides the Workers’ Compensation Coverage?
The practical answer can depend on the staffing agreement and the insurance arrangements between the companies.
A staffing agency commonly carries workers’ compensation insurance covering the employees it places with clients. If the worker gets hurt during an assignment, that policy can be the policy through which the claim is handled.
The host company might also qualify as an employer under North Carolina law, however. North Carolina’s Workers’ Compensation Act contains provisions addressing workers who are in the joint service of multiple employers.
That does not mean an injured worker receives two workers’ compensation payments for the same injury. Instead, the law can recognize more than one employer while allowing the companies and their insurers to determine how responsibility for the compensation is distributed.
For the worker, the immediate priority is less about figuring out which company’s insurance department should ultimately pay and more about making sure the injury is properly reported and the claim is protected.
Report the Injury to Both Companies
A temporary worker should not assume that telling a supervisor at the job site automatically takes care of everything.
If possible, report the injury to both the host company and the staffing agency. Doing so creates a clearer record and reduces the chance that one company later argues that it was never informed.
A worker should document:
● When and where the accident happened
● What task was being performed
● How the injury occurred
● Which body parts were injured
● The names of supervisors who were notified
● The names of coworkers or other witnesses
● Any medical treatment received
North Carolina law generally requires an injured employee to provide written notice of a workplace accident to the employer as soon as practicable and within 30 days, subject to limited exceptions.
Reporting the accident promptly is especially important for temporary workers because supervisors, assignments, and work locations can change quickly.
The Staffing Agency’s Report Does Not File the Worker’s Claim
Another source of confusion is the difference between an employer reporting an injury and an employee filing a workers’ compensation claim.
Employers use Form 19 to report qualifying workplace injuries to the North Carolina Industrial Commission. But an employer’s Form 19 does not file the employee’s workers’ compensation claim.
The injured employee generally uses Form 18, Notice of Accident to Employer and Claim of Employee, Representative, or Dependent, to file the claim with the Industrial Commission.
North Carolina generally gives an employee two years from the date of an injury by accident to file a workers’ compensation claim, subject to the rules and exceptions contained in state law.
That deadline should not be treated as a reason to wait. Evidence can disappear, witnesses can become harder to locate, and temporary assignments can end long before two years pass.
What If the Host Company Caused the Accident?
Suppose a temporary employee is assigned to a Charlotte warehouse. A manager at the warehouse tells the employee to use a piece of equipment, controls how the work is performed, and supervises the employee throughout the shift. The employee is then injured while following those instructions.
It might seem logical to sue the host company because the accident happened there.
That is not always an option.
If the host company qualifies as the worker’s special employer under North Carolina law, workers’ compensation rules can affect whether the employee can bring a separate negligence lawsuit against that company. Workers’ compensation is generally designed to provide benefits for qualifying workplace injuries while limiting traditional injury lawsuits against employers.
The precise employment relationship matters. Contracts between the staffing company and host business can also affect the analysis, as can the worker’s actual day-to-day relationship with each company.
What If Someone Other Than an Employer Caused the Injury?
A different issue arises when someone outside the worker’s employment relationship causes the accident.
For example, a temporary worker could be hurt because of:
● A negligent driver while performing work duties
● A defective piece of equipment
● A subcontractor working for another company
● A property owner who is not the worker’s employer
Depending on the circumstances, the employee could have a workers’ compensation claim and a separate claim against a third party.
Those claims operate differently. Workers’ compensation does not generally require an employee to prove that the employer was negligent. A third-party personal injury claim, by contrast, typically requires establishing legal responsibility for the injury.
The interaction between the two claims can also affect how money recovered from a third party is handled.
Being a Temp Worker Does Not Automatically Eliminate Workers’ Comp Protection
Temporary status by itself does not mean someone has no workers’ compensation rights.
North Carolina generally requires businesses subject to the Workers’ Compensation Act to maintain workers’ compensation coverage. In most cases, businesses that regularly employ three or more employees fall under the Act, although exceptions exist.
For a temp worker, the bigger challenge can be identifying exactly how the staffing agency, host business, and their insurers fit together.
That uncertainty should not stop someone from reporting an injury.
A worker who gets hurt on a Charlotte job assignment should document what happened, notify both companies, seek appropriate medical attention, and make sure a workers’ compensation claim is actually filed when necessary. The staffing company and host business can work out their respective insurance obligations. The injured worker’s job is to make sure the accident does not disappear into the gap between them.
