The Boston Globe

Patrick signs temporary worker bill

AP  / August 6, 2012

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has signed into law legislation that aims to protect temporary workers by requiring short-term employment agencies to be more transparent.

Patrick signed the bill without fanfare Monday at the Statehouse.

Under the new law, staffing agencies are prohibited from charging registration and criminal record check fees, as well as from any other fee that would reduce a worker’s pay below the minimum wage. Additionally, agencies will be required to reimburse a temporary worker who is sent to a worksite when no jobs are available there.

It also creates a bill of rights for temporary employees, requiring the staffing agencies to disclose wages, worker’s compensation carrier and other basic information.

Patrick said the legislation will help ensure that temporary workers in Massachusetts are being treated ‘‘fairly.’’

 

The Boston Herald

Gov. Deval Patrick signs temp worker rights bill

By Ira Kantor
Monday, August 6, 2012 - Added 16 hours ago

Come next year, the state’s temporary employment agencies will no longer be able to send any temp workers to jobs without informing them of the name of their employer, the wages they will be paid or any basic safety training they need, according to a bill signed into law today by Gov. Deval Patrick.

Starting January 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 state Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry (D-Dorchester) and Sen. Jack Hart (D-South Boston).

“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 Forry. “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.”

The Massachusetts Bar Association applauded the law’s passage.

“This critical legislation does the right thing; ensures that the state’s more than 1,000 temporary workers are protected from exploitation and hazardous working conditions,” said Douglas Sheff, the group’s treasurer and chairman of its workplace safety task force. “When workers are abused, the results range from inadequate pay to broken bones, amputated limbs, brain injury and even death.”

-— ira.kantor@bostonherald.com

 

The Boston Globe

Patrick signs law to protect temporary workers

By D.C. Denison and Dan Adams

 |  Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent  

  August 07, 2012

Temporary staffing agencies in Massachusetts must provide day workers with such basic job information as rate of pay and job descriptions under a bill signed into law by Governor Deval Patrick on Monday.

The law, which goes into effect in January, also prohibits agencies from charging certain fees that could drive a worker’s pay below the minimum wage, including the cost of registering with the staffing agency or for performing a criminal record check. In addition, staffing agencies are required to reimburse any worker sent to a job only to find no work is available.

“Thousands of Massachusetts workers are sent off to work by staffing agencies without any idea of where they are going, what work they will do, and what they will be paid,” Governor Patrick said in a statement. “This bill levels the playing field for all of our businesses while fulfilling our responsibility to make sure all of our workers are being treated fairly.”

There are nearly 100,000 day workers in the state, according to the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. The new law requires that staffing agencies provide each one with a “job order” that includes contact information for the employment agency, the employer, the Department of Labor Standards, and the workers compensation carrier; a description of the job; the pay rate and pay date; the daily starting and ending time; expected duration of the assignment; whether meals are provided; and details related to transportation costs and fees.

Staffing agencies do not have to provide job information to temporary workers who are doing secretarial, clerical, and administrative-type work — generally defined as “professionals.”

‘This bill levels the playing field for all of our businesses.’

The State House signing drew an array of advocates, legislators, and workers, many of whom said they had long hoped for the protections now afforded them.

Adrian Ventura, a 38-year-old temporary worker who also helps run the New Bedford Workers Center, said the problems addressed by the new law were commonplace.

In his nine years as a day laborer, he said, he experienced or witnessed abuses that included the denial of compensation to workers injured on the job, and being sent to a job without being told where he would be working.

“The temp agency would never tell us the name of the company we were working for or who owned it,” Ventura said through a translator. “Now with the legislation, we can bring those companies to light, out of the shadows.”

Labor advocates also celebrated the passage of the law. “Too often, workers in the low-wage sector of the temp industry suffer exploitation and abuse,” said Steven A. Tolman, Massachusetts AFL-CIO president, in a statement. “This bill will go a long way towards stopping that inhumane treatment.”

But Edward A. Lenz, senior vice president at the American Staffing Association, a trade group based in Alexandria, Va., questioned the need for the law. “There are already enough good employment laws; we just need better enforcement,” he said. “Businesses are already struggling with lots of rules and regulations.”

Lenz said that now that the measure has been signed into law, the association is “looking forward to working with the administration to help our members comply.”

The state Labor Department will issue the new regulations, and carry out inspections and investigations under the law.

 

Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Business briefs

 

BOSTON —  Gov. Deval Patrick has signed into law legislation that aims to protect temporary workers by requiring short-term employment agencies to be more transparent. Patrick signed the bill without fanfare Monday at the Statehouse.

Under the new law, staffing agencies are prohibited from charging registration and criminal record check fees, as well as from any other fee that would reduce a worker's pay below the minimum wage. Additionally, agencies will be required to reimburse a temporary worker who is sent to a worksite when no jobs are available there.

It also creates a bill of rights for temporary employees, requiring the staffing agencies to disclose wages, worker's compensation carrier and other basic information.

Patrick said the legislation will help ensure that temporary workers in Massachusetts are being treated fairly.

 

90.9 wbur.org

New Mass. Law To Support Temporary Workers

By The Associated Press August 7, 2012

BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick has signed into law legislation that aims to protect temporary workers by requiring short-term employment agencies to be more transparent.

Patrick signed the bill without fanfare Monday at the State House.

Under the new law, staffing agencies are prohibited from charging registration and criminal record check fees, as well as from any other fee that would reduce a worker’s pay below the minimum wage. Additionally, agencies will be required to reimburse a temporary worker who is sent to a worksite when no jobs are available there.

It also creates a bill of rights for temporary employees, requiring the staffing agencies to disclose wages, worker’s compensation carrier and other basic information.

Patrick said the legislation will help ensure that temporary workers in Massachusetts are being treated “fairly.”

 

GoLocalWorcester.com

NEW: Gov. Patrick Signs Bill to Protect Temporary Workers

Monday, August 06, 2012

GoLocalWorcester News Team

Gov. Patrick signed an Act Establishing a Temporary Workers Right to Know, legislation that strengthens the state’s ability to regulate staffing and temporary agencies to protect vulnerable workers and level the playing field for businesses.

“Thousands of Massachusetts workers are sent off to work by staffing agencies without any idea of where they are going, what work they will do, and what they will be paid,” said Governor Patrick. “This bill levels the playing field for all of our businesses while fulfilling our responsibility to make sure all of our workers are being treated fairly.”

Temporary workers employed under such conditions have failed to receive their earned wages or can be injured at hazardous worksites without workers’ compensation coverage in place. This not only hurts workers, but also the law-abiding businesses that must bear the costs on behalf of these staffing agencies.

“The Temporary Workers Right to Know Bill promotes transparency and fairness,” said Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, Joanne F. Goldstein. “This legislation requires staffing agencies to provide employees with notice about basic information before going to a job, such as the temporary agency’s contact information, workers’ compensation carrier, and the rate of pay.”

The bill also prohibits agencies from charging certain fees, like the cost of registering with the staffing agency or for performing a criminal record check. Staffing agencies are also prohibited from charging any fee that would reduce a worker’s pay below the minimum wage, and are required to reimburse a worker if it sends him/her to a worksite for the purposes of working and no work is available.

Professional, secretarial and administrative positions are excluded from the job order notification requirement, the central provision of the law. The new requirements under this law conform to industry standards practiced by the Commonwealth’s staffing agencies. These provisions reflect the fact that this bill balances both workers’ rights and the business needs of staffing agencies.

The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development’s Department of Labor Standards is currently responsible for registering staffing agencies, and will issue regulations and carry out inspections and investigations under this new law.

 

TOPNEWS.us

A Law to Protect Temporary Workers

Submitted by Cindy Tweed on Tue, 08/07/2012 - 13:17

There is always a danger hanging around the neck of temporary workers and therefore to protect them, Gov. Deval Patrick has signed a legislation that says, from now onwards, the short-term employment agencies that deals with temporary workers will work in a much transparent way.

Without any sort of elaborations and discussions, Patrick signed this bill on Monday at the State House to protect the futures of temporary workers.

The new law goes like this:

• No registration fee and criminal record check fee will be charged from the temporary employees.
• Any other kind of fee that tends to reduce the pay of a temporary worker below than the minimum wage limit will be barred.
• If an employee is sent to a worksite with no jobs available there, then the agency will have to reimburse the worker.
• It is mandatory for the Staffing Agencies to share the wages, worker's compensation carrier and other basic information with the temporary workers in the beginning only.

With the introduction of this legislation, there appears a high hope for the existence of a fair treatment towards temporary workers in Massachusetts.

There is no doubt to say that it would be quite challenging for the Massachusetts Hospital Association to implement this law successfully but they promised to work hard and fight till they win.