Employee Daily Status

I am a COR I am in a situation where I have, and I walked into this so it has been the practice of this organization. Regardless of work status, i.e. Federal Employee,Active Duty, or Contract Employee we have a system that the person signs into in the morning. The system is not precise enough to track hours, its sole purpose is to know who is in the building and who is not.

I now have the lawyers saying no we can't have the contractors reporting their status as such. Being a contracting professional as well as a experienced COR I can make the argument both way.

1. No the contractor is not our employee and we should not present a perception of employer/employee relationship. Having the contractor sign into this system does give that impression. The system does not have to be signed out of.

2. As a safety aspect we should know who is in the building in case of emergency and who is not. We would have to account for every person in a time of evacuation to ensure the building was vacated.

My question to my WIFCON Colleagues is: Is there any case law, rules or regulations that requires accountability of personnel within our premises?

Thank you all for any help...