[Tidybuoy]

I reviewed some bills this morning and was surprised to see that one of our staffing agencies is charging us for sick days when one of their employees is sick.

In this particular situation: We needed a laborer for one week. The agency sent one person who worked for 4 days but called in sick on the 5th day. The agency sent a replacement for the 5th day. The employee who was sick, came back and worked a 5th day (which was a Saturday). Our company basically had one FT employee for 6 days (combo of 2 different people).

When I received the bill from the staffing agency it was for: 5 days x 8hrs, 1 day x 8hrs, and 1 sick day x 8 hrs.

I asked our HR director why we had to pay sick leave for a temporary agency. Shouldn't the agency be paying the employees sick day? After all, we are charged a substantial fee over and above the employees actual rate which should cover the agencies costs (i.e., taxes, health ins, workers comp, profit). The staffing agency is the actual employer of this employee.

I've been searching the net for a definitive rule on this but I have yet to find anything that specifically covers my situation. Does anyone here have experience with this? Can you point me to a link that would help me?

We pay approximately $500k per year on temp agency help and this could be a substantial additional cost.