Interview with Documentarian

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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, is the federal agency tasked with assuring health and safe working conditions. OSHA realized a few years ago that temporary workers were at increasing risk of experiencing serious or fatal injuries on the job. When the agency looked into why, they found some situations they believed they must address. They learned that often temporary workers had inadequate training, that they were often “new” workers several times a year, and that there has been increasing number of temporary workers in many sectors of the economy over the past several years.

Recently we caught up with David DeSario, the executive producer of the documentary A Day’s Work.

The film that examines the landmark workplace death of 21-year-old Lawrence DaQuan “Day” Davis through the eyes of his family and the analysis of experts. Day was an employee of a temporary staffing agency working at a bottling plant in Jacksonville, Florida in 2012. He was killed 90 minutes into the first day of the job – the first job of his life. With thousands killed in preventable workplaces accidents every year in the US, the film provides a reminder of the cost of just one individual by vividly looking into the life and perspective of Day’s 17-year-old sister Antonia.

DeSario is the Founding Member of the Alliance for the American Temporary Workforce (AATW), a member of the NIOSH NORA Services Sector Committee advising on government research priorities, and a former temp worker. He started his communications career as a freelance reporter for the New York Post website while working as a temp in the basement of an auto parts factory in Queens as it shut down operations and sent its equipment to China and Mexico. He built and maintains the leading online resource for information on the temporary staffing industry (www.TemporaryEmployees.org) and screens A Day’s Work as the centerpiece of efforts to raise awareness and create action for critical issues affecting working people.

Thanks so much to David DeSario for spending the time to answer our questions.

Tell us about A Day’s Work. A Day’s Work is an award-winning feature length documentary film that is widely used as an educational tool within the safety and health community. It’s about a young man who was killed on his first day at work, and it reveals how the system of temporary employment contributed to his death, as well as countless other fatalities and injuries in the U.S.
How did you get involved in the safety profession? I had to get involved in safety as an advocate for temporary workers – the risks to life and limb are twice as great for temp workers doing the same work as directly-hired employees. Workers have no idea of the risk, and host employers and temp agencies often don’t know either.
Why do you think the OSHA Temporary Worker Initiative (TWI) is important? OSHA’s Temporary Worker Initiative has gone a long way in raising awareness for issues facing temp workers at OSHA and among safety professionals – it’s why you’re reading this right now. However, simple recommendations for best practices within the staffing industry offered by OSHA and NIOSH have not been widely adopted by staffing agencies, and are not the law.
What can staffing agencies do to protect workers? The first step in solving a problem is admitting that there is one. The staffing industry refuses to acknowledge that temp workers are at greater risk of injury on the job. After that, there are many ways they can improve safety, including 1) following the OSHA/NIOSH recommended guidelines, 2) following temp worker “Right to Know” guidelines that provide basic safety information to worker before they go out on the job, and 3) considering not staffing the highest hazard industries where temp workers are as much as 6 times more likely to be injured.
What can host employers do to protect workers? Host employers should provide temporary workers the same exact safety training they provide their direct hires. Unfortunately, part of the appeal of hiring temp workers is that they’re “ready on day one,” a direct conflict to investing in their training. Additionally, employers should recognize that temp workers often fear speaking out about dangerous working conditions, or don’t know how to identify them, so employers need to be more active in listening to workers and observing the work process.
What can workers do to protect themselves when working at temporary worksites? Unfortunately, many of us have to choose between having a job, and being safe at that job. It’s not a choice that anyone should have to make.
Tell us why you produced A Day’s Work? I’m just a temp worker who is doing my part to speak out for others like me. There are 3 million Americans at work today through a temp agency – and growing – and we need to address many serious issues within the staffing industry before we’re all temporary.
What have you learned as you have traveled throughout the US showing the documentary? I’ve done about 125 film screening events and it’s the same story over and over again. Every city, every town, is dealing with issues related to the staffing industry – the increasing insecurity of work, lower wages, unsafe working conditions, less of a voice in our workplaces – all issues made worse as temporary and contingent work becomes the new norm.