TEMPORARY AGENCIES UPDATE
Building and Construction Trades Department Press Release
At the request of the Building and Construction Trades Dept, AFL-CIO, the General Accounting Office will investigate whether federal agencies are doing enough to protect the safety of blue-collar temp workers. BCTD has asked that the GAO examine why workers at the country's largest blue collar temp firm, Labor Ready Inc., suffer an injury rate of 25.7 per 100 workers, more than three times the construction injury average. BCTD also asked the probe to examine the causes of recent vehicle crashes that have killed or injured temp workers being transported to jobsites and whether federal transportation officials can do more to prevent such crashes.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) commissioned the GAO probe. GAO is the investigative agency of the US Congress. Mr. Gutierrez is asking the GAO to examine whether the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration should hold temp agencies directly responsible for safety conditions at customer's job sites and require temp firms to inspect these sites prior to dispatching workers. Cal-OSHA rules in May decisions against Labor Ready and Manpower that temp firms in California must inspect customer workplaces, insure safety, report all injuries, and be held accountable for safety conditions.
Many blue-collar temp workers count on their employers for transportation to jobs. More than 50% of Labor Ready's workers pay the company for rides, often in company vans or vehicles driven by other temp workers. On June 18, an overloaded van carrying temp workers from a Delaware plant, crashed on its return to Lam Staffing Inc. in Philadelphia killing five of the workers. On July 19, another overloaded van of temp workers crashed in the Chicago suburbs injuring all nineteen temp workers who were crammed into a seven-passenger van. The driver was unlicensed. The van, commissioned by Milwaukee based Staff Works Staffing Services, was also uninsured and carried a fraudulent registration. Mr. Gutierrez is asking GAO to determine whether US DOT needs more authority or needs to focus more on such safety problems.
Court Orders Labor Ready to Repay Workers for Illegal Payroll Deductions
New Hampshire Labor Ready workers, assisted by the New Hampshire Building Trades, the officers of UA Local #131 of Hooksett, New Hampshire, and in particular Local # 131 Organizer Donald Gardner, handed Labor Ready Inc. a major defeat in New Hampshire Superior Court on illegal payroll deductions.
Workers complained to the New Hampshire Labor Department that Labor Ready's practice of charging workers for rides to job sites was an illegal payroll deduction. NHDOL agreed, and on behalf of the workers, pursued Labor Ready to pay the workers back.
Labor Ready appealed the state's enforcement action to state court where Presiding Justice Edward J. Fitzgerald III ruled against Labor Ready. Justice Fitzgerald "affirmed in whole" the NHDOL order that four of Labor Ready's New Hampshire offices pay $143,153.24 illegally deducted from worker pay.
Labor Ready is being sued in several other states for illegal deductions. In Georgia, Labor Ready workers are suing over illegal deductions for transportation, safety equipment, and charges for being paid in cash. And, New Hampshire's neighbor, the Massachusetts Attorney General has directed Labor Ready to end its practice of charging workers to receive their pay in cash.
Labor Ready committed an unfair labor practice by prohibiting construction workers, who must come to a company office for job assignments, from soliciting union support or distributing literature in the waiting room (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit rules June 1 (NLRB v. Labor Ready Inc., 4th Cir., No. 00-2064, 611101).
Affirming a decision by the NLRB, the appeals court agreed that the workers are employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act despite language in their agreements with Labor Ready stating they are "deemed to have quit" at the end of each work day. The workers therefore have the right to solicit and distribute literature in non-work areas such as the waiting room during non work times, the appeals court said.
King Resigns as Labor Ready CEO
Dick King, President and CEO abruptly resigned from
Labor Ready on September 24, 2001, citing "personal reasons". Failed
earnings, profits and sales forecasts, and poor performance marked his tenure.
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