Workers’ compensation filings of temporary workers compared to direct hire workers in Illinois, 2007–2012

Abstract

There are differences between temporary workers and direct hire employees in terms of total workers' compensation awards, total time off, and percent disability. Additional studies are needed to validate these findings. Am. J. Ind. Med. 60:11-19, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Comparative analyses of workers' compensation claims of injury among temporary and permanent employed workers in Ohio

“…This study found that injured temporary agency workers in the OHBWC database were younger, more predominantly male, had less tenure (especially those with less than a year on the job), and had higher rates of injury for all MO and LT claims compared to permanently employed workers. All of the above findings concur with similar studies conducted using WC data from WA (2003‐2006, 2005‐2011, 2011‐2015); WC data from IL (2007‐2012), injury data from Spain (2001‐2002); and injury data from Finland (1997‐2007) . A recent BLS report also indicated that temporary agencies have higher proportions of younger workers, especially age 20 to 24 and that the workers tend to be male (52.3%) .…”

“…Of relevance, are studies that utilized WC data from WA L&I, and data from the IL WC Commission . Compared to this study, the studies from WA L&I covered, relatively shorter periods of time: 4, 5, and 7 years; and the study from Illinois covered 6 years.…”

“…Washington State has reported that employment services ranked 25th overall among all state‐insured private industry 4‐digit NAICS industries and 4th in the services sector based on LT (4 or more days away from work) claim count and rate from 2002 to 2010 . WC data analyses from Illinois showed that SOII underestimated injury counts and rates among temporary workers compared to those estimated based on WC data …”

“…The challenges associated with proper and reliable accounting for occupational injuries among temporary workers limited the number of studies that allow for comparing their risk for injury with that of permanent workers performing similar job‐related tasks or working in similar industry sectors. This type of comparative studies has also been limited to specific states with better systems for surveillance of OII such as Washington, or in states where researchers were able to acquire data from one or more data sources such as Ohio and Illinois …”

“…Madigan, Forst, Friedman conducted an analysis of disputed WC claims filed with Illinois (IL) WC Commission from 2007 through 2012 and found key differences between compensation for injured temporary workers vs permanent or direct hire workers. Similar to the WA studies, the study found a lower median total costs per claim for temporary workers.…”