Governor Patrick signs landmark bill to halt temp worker exploitation
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Governor Patrick signs landmark bill to halt temp worker exploitation
Massachusetts to become second state to ensure temp workers be provided critical employment information
8/6/12 BOSTON – A bill signed into law today by Governor Patrick will ensure that the most egregious practices by some of the state’s temporary employment agencies will end. When the law takes effect in January 2013, it will no longer be legal for temporary agencies to send any of the Commonwealth’s approximate 25,000 temporary workers to jobs without informing workers of the name of their employer, the wages they will be paid, or the basic safety training they need to protect themselves from jobs that are often hazardous. The law shines a light on those temp agencies operating in the darkness of Massachusetts’s underground economy, where worker injuries are often unreported and millions of dollars in overtime and minimum wages are unpaid.
“I worked ten hours per day peeling fruit,” said Juan Calderas, a temporary worker for whom the law was designed to protect. “We had no breaks, until after ten hours of work. I was carrying a large bucket of fruit and fell. I broke two discs in my back. When the employer refused to pay my doctor’s bills, that’s when I learned that I wasn’t working for the company at all, but instead for a temporary agency.”
Starting January 31, 2013, temp agencies will be required to give each worker a written job order, providing information that every worker has a right to expect before going to a job. It also provides tools for the Department of Labor Standards to bring temp agencies into the light to ensure transparency and accountability.
The Temporary Worker’s Right to Know Act was sponsored by Representative Linda Dorcena Forry and Senator Jack Hart and benefited greatly from the strong support of Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray.
“After more than a year of meetings with a diverse coalition of stakeholders, including workers’ advocates, representatives of the staffing industry and relevant state agencies and task forces, we have a comprehensive piece of legislation that strengthens a temporary workers right to critical information about their employment, while also minimizing the burden on employers,” said Representative Forry (D-Dorchester), the House lead sponsor. “A temporary worker will now know what wages they can expect, what safety equipment they might need, and who to call if they become injured on the job.”
In 2008, temporary workers like Calderas joined together with worker centers, unions, faith, community and legal groups to seek reforms in the temporary industry, after finding themselves injured and underpaid and unable to obtain justice. Many of the temporary workers reported being sent off to dangerous jobs with virtually no information about their employment – not even so much as the name of their employer and workers’ compensation provider, nor the amount of their wages.
“With the Governor’s signature, this law will bring essential sunlight to the shadows where these abuses have taken place, and help ensure fairness for workers and employers who follow the state’s labor laws,” said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, executive director of MassCOSH and coordinator of the REAL (Reform Employment Agency Law) Coalition, which advocated for the bill’s passage. “We are grateful for the leadership the Governor and legislature has taken to ensure that workers receive basic and essential information about their jobs.”
Yessenia Alvaro of the Chelsea Collaborative and a member of the REAL Coalition stated, “Workers in our communities stood up and said, ‘we want to be able to work for someone who appreciates our hard labor.’”
Erasmo Ramos, of the Metrowest Worker Center, a Framingham-based member of the REAL coalition noted, “This legislation offers important tools to defend our rights and dignity on the job.”
“The bill levels the playing field for employees and businesses,” said Douglas K. Sheff, incoming president-elect of the Massachusetts Bar Association and chair of its Workplace Safety Task Force. “These abusive practices place legitimate businesses at a competitive disadvantage.”
“We had so many temporary workers coming to us for legal assistance – with unpaid wages, injuries, illegal fees– and we couldn’t help them,” said Monica Halas, lead attorney at the Greater Boston Legal Services, who represents the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH) and the Coalition on this campaign and helped draft language for the bill. “There was no documentation of where they worked and what they were supposed to be paid to take legal action.”
Union supporters and the region’s Labor Councils like the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, and Massachusetts Building Trades, see this bill as an effort to not only improve conditions for workers in temporary jobs, but to raise the standard for all working people in Massachusetts.
“Too often workers in the low wage sector of the temp industry suffer exploitation and abuse,” said Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steven A. Tolman. “This bill will go a long way towards stopping that inhumane treatment. Just as often good temp and staffing agencies that play by the rules and respect their workers are undercut by the unscrupulous practices of the worst actors in the industry. This basic information and these basic protections will improve the safety and increase the dignity of these most vulnerable, most exploited workers. This law will both enable temp workers to seek redress when they are wronged, and serve as a deterrent to the bad behavior of the worst agencies, making it easier to compete for those who do right by their workers. We are grateful to the legislature and Governor Patrick for the progress this law represents for workers who do not have the protections of a union.
Passage of the Temporary Worker’s Right to Know Act marks a long fought and very important victory for all workers in Massachusetts. MassCOSH would like to thank all those who fought along with the REAL Coalition over the years to improve the lives of some of our hardest working and most exploited brothers and sisters. Check back with www.masscosh.org often for Temporary Worker’s Right to Know Act updates.
