Does temp worker industry need tougher regulation?
By Sanders, Bob | |
Proquest LLC |
"I had never used a temp agency in the past," he said. "I'm 53. I've always found a job on my own. My resume spoke for itself."
And then there was the experience of a friend who was burned by an agency that moved out of state and had been "hiring people out of the halfway house with criminal records."
But after looking every day for nearly a year, and with his extended benefits running out, "I figured I'd give it a shot. It was a last resort. When all else fails."
That's the way it's supposed to work, and usually does, in an industry that has just about doubled in size in the last two decades and has become more of a first resort for employers concerned about the economy.
Such methods have made the "staffing industry almost a commodity."
The question is what to do about them, and that question becane very concrete with the introduction of House Bill 1189 - a bill that would tighten regulation of temporary workers.
The bill - which was still being considered by the
The
It also might end up requiring that an agency reimburse a worker for expenses to commute to their workplace from home (though bill supporters say it was meant to cover transportation costs from the temp agency to the job site or between different job sites). Those that violate the law could face a fine of
Enforcement questions
The staffing industry - including Leddy, whose
"This would destroy
Rather than come up with more regulations, the industry argues that the state should do a better job of enforcing existing labor law, which applies to temporary agencies the same way it does to other employers.
However, the state
Those pushing the bill think that it should. They maintain that temporary employees are particularly vulnerable and require the most protection, since they are really working for two companies at once. They talk of workers injured on the job not getting workers' compensation or their full pay, or having to pay a fee to get proof of income needed for government benefits.
"This is an unregulated, multimillion-dollar industry employing thousands of workers in
There is no doubt that the staffing industry is expanding, though whether that growth will continue remains to be seen. Nationally, it employed 2.8 million workers each day in January, compared to 1.1 million at the same time in 1990. However, in 2014, there were slightly fewer temporary workers than there were in 2000, as the industry rose and fell with the rest of the economy. The numbers, however, are back on the upswing - about 9 percent higher than
Some say that growth will accelerate and that temp workers will soon be the "new norm" - a term that was the title of a recent Union Leader article.
When asked to back up that figure, the closest thing Madden could come up with was a Staffing Industry Analysts estimate that contingent workers - which also include independent contractors - may comprise 50 percent of the worldwide workforce in 2020.
Manufacturing jobs
For now, temp workers account for 2.2 percent of the labor force in
In
The state
"We need that flexibility," explained
About 20 percent of
Their median weekly wage was
They are employed by some 73 agencies in more than 550 offices around
Most of these staffing agencies pay by the week and boast of the various benefits they offer workers, including safety programs. Indeed, they argue, their own workers' compensation experience rating is an economic incentive for them to continue to do so, and it's another reason they opposed the bill.
Such safety problems mainly involve day-labor agencies, which are "a whole different breed," said
Indeed, the only specific example of a safety violation was attributed to such an agency.
When the worker contacted the Labor Ready office, according to Castillo, he was told he was drunk and banned from working. The worker successfully appealed his case, and
The worker did not identify himself for fear of losing his job, which is why, say advocates, no temporary workers spoke in support of a bill filed on their behalf. This fear is particularly strong amongst immigrant workers.
"They don't know where to take different complaints," said
Several advocates particularly mentioned
One issue involved the difficulty of getting income verification for various benefits, without a credit card. One advocate of African workers - who asked not to be named for fear of jeopardizing the employment chances of those he advocates for - complained to NHBR about Hispanic workers in economically depressed area of
She also said that, while the agency will hire out of state to get the best workers possible for clients, they are not bussed in.
"We don't provide transportation. We don't discriminate based on ethnicity - only on qualifications," she said.
Lindt does employ another temporary agency, she noted, and she could not vouch for it.
Bhan Rasaily, a 27-year-old who fled the turmoil in
"When you come here, and I don't have good English, it was really hard to find a job, and the temporary agencies helped me. I'm very happy thanks to them," he said.
So are
Ironically, though, Molkentine no longer works directly for BAE, which outsourced janitorial services to another company, GCA Services, a third-party employment agency - another trend that's growing in use among Fortune 500 companies.
Copyright: | (c) 2014 Business Publications Inc. |
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