Abused and Exploited Temp Workers May Finally Get a Break

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/abused-and-exploited-temp-workers-may-finally-get-break




California could become one of the first states in the nation to hold companies legally responsible for wage and safety violations by their subcontractors and temp agencies if a bill proposed Friday becomes law.

The bill tackles the longstanding complaint of labor leaders that companies can often shirk responsibility for the abuse of workers by hiring them through agencies or contracting with smaller firms.

A ProPublica investigation last year found that temp workers face high rates of wage violations and on-the-job injuries, but rarely have recourse against the brand-name companies whose products they move, pack or assemble. Typically, only the agencies or subcontractors that directly employ workers face fines when something goes wrong, even when fulfilling contracts with larger firms that indirectly control or influence the work conditions.

Unions and other worker advocates say the bill would protect temps and subcontracted workers, such as building janitors, by holding the companies at the top of the supply chain accountable.

[Laelth]

1. k&r for labor. n/t

-Laelth

[jumptheshadow]

2. Thank you for your posts

You start some of the most important threads on this site.

[xchrom]

3. thanks!

[brewens]

4. This assistant manager at the beer distributor turned into a real prick over time.

When I started there he patted himself on the back for being sharp enough to pay part time kids loading trucks and stuff like that pretty well. We got better workers that way, they stuck around and a few ended up working for us full-time. Those wages were like $5 an hour when minimum wage was half that.

By the time I had worked up to warehouse supervisor he had changed. He wanted to get everything done for rock bottom wages and looked at those guys like they were dirt. I'm not sure what happened to him. By the time he retired he really wasn't right in the head in general.

One day he had seen some piece on 20/20 or something like that about how many companies were going to temp agencies. I remember having seen the same thing but it was really pretty negative. He decided that was the way to go. We didn't want to hire guys for that kind of work and have them expect it to lead to a real job. They had largely taken to almost always jacking other companies employees for any good driver or sales position by then. No more kids doing a good job for us and working their way up as had served them so well in the past. They were now disposable.

That really sucked for me because it dropped the quality of the rookies exponentially. Then what really killed me was over a couple of years, when we did get a guy from a temp agency that was really good, he reversed himself totally. The guy would be moved up just like before. I tried to talk to him about it. Why not just go back to what we used to do? Pay them a little more and get good guys to begin with? Everyone always new a good kid that wanted to work for us. Not a chance! He stuck with the temp agency until he retired.

One of the owners sons replaced him. He could be a real idiot but at least he was fair about that kind of thing. As far as the part-time help, he let me and the route supervisor do whatever we wanted as long as the money worked out.

[IkeRepublican]

5. The wingnut machine will be all over this if...

Russia doesn't produce any Pootie-Ukrainian soap operas today. That's after they spin and lie about today's job numbers, which shouldn't be long because talking about it is counter-productive in their universe.

Remember, workplace laws is tyranny, socialism and the product of satan, according to the wingnuts. Getting a digit lopped off by unmaintained machinery is 100% Obama's fault. Or Hillary's fault.