Yup, blue denim in his veins.
At least the state is looking to help.... itself?
"Exploitation of blue-collar temps is targeted" June 14, 2011|By Katie Johnston Chase, Globe Staff
A growing number of temporary workers who take low-wage jobs in warehouses, food processing plants, and construction sites are being exploited because the employment agencies they work for are not regulated, according to a report being released today by the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
These temp workers are dropped off at work sites with little information about the job, exposed to toxic chemicals without proper protection, and struggle to get medical treatment for on-the-job injuries, said the study. Some are paid less than minimum wage and often do not receive due overtime pay because both the agency and the employer split 40-plus-hour work weeks into two paychecks.
In America?
The Massachusetts House is considering a measure, supported by the Patrick administration and the attorney general’s office, that would bring temporary staffing agencies under the oversight of the state Department of Labor Standards; require those that employ blue-collar workers to provide written information to employees about safety, job details, and workers’ compensation; and streamline the registration process.
More detailed record-keeping will make it easier for the state to track companies and detect patterns of abuse, supporters say, and will provide proof of wages, hours, and employers’ names for workers claiming overtime or other pay.
And catch a whole crop of illegals, right?
“They need that paper trail to actually protect people from those labor violations,’’ said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health.
Some members of the industry support additional regulation. “If companies pay the people cash or pay the people without tax deductions, it hurts me because there’s no way I can compete with the [lower] rates’’ they charge, said Jose Avila, general manager of Employment on Demand Agency Inc. in Chelsea.
The agency agreed to support the bill after workers told of improper payment and sexual harassment and threatened a protest, said Goldstein-Gelb....
See what protests can do, America?
Temp agencies, which employ janitors, landscapers, and warehouse workers and comprise most of the state’s commercial employment-agency business....
“We have a lot of workers who are in effect laboring in the shadows,’’ said Harris Freeman, an associate professor at the Western New England University School of Law in Springfield and study coauthor. “Temporary staffing has been used by lots of low-wage industries to really create a second-class workforce.’’
Seems like all societies have them.
Across the country, the number of blue-collar temporary workers has increased from 6 percent of the temp agency workforce in 1985 to more than 35 percent today, said the UMass report. In Massachusetts, about 25,000 temporary workers toil in low-wage jobs every day....
The lack of oversight also costs the state money in unpaid taxes and workers’ comp insurance....
What the state really cares about.
And you thought it was you!?
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