12.2.6.2 “Borrowing'' or “Special'' Employers

• Jurisdiction: Arizona

. It is important to distinguish between a statutory employer and a “special’’ or “borrowing’’ employer. Even though each shares the exclusive remedy immunity of the direct employer, the requirements for each appellation are quite different. The “special’’ employer situation, also known as the “lent employee’’ doctrine, is not a statutory creature and differs in application from the statutory employer doctrine. It is normally applicable to instances where a labor contractor merely supplies temporary workers to businesses which then directly supervise their work. There is no contractor entity interposed between the direct employer (the labor contractor) and the “borrowing’’ (“special’’) employer. The labor contractor is not doing the work for the special employer, rather, the special or borrowing employer is actually doing its own work.

Under this doctrine, the special employer is liable for workers’ compensation and immune from civil suit if three factors are present:

(a) the employee has made a contract of hire, express or implied, with the special employer; (b) the work being done is essentially that of the special employer; and (c) the special employer has the right to control the details of the work.^[114]

Under the first requirement, there must be consent to the...