They dot the landscape like billboards and you cannot help but see them as you drive in your car. Some are privately owned, and others are a part of a larger franchise. Most are very useful to the hardworking man or woman that seek their services. Some occupy a small corner office in a non descript building and others occupy an entire floor. Some agencies project a very dark and mysterious image by having all their staff dress in black. But the majority of staffing agencies project a well meaning and casual and friendly image.
Having said all that we must not forget that these agencies exist to make a profit. And they can be ruthless in their practices toward the innocent job applicant or associate as some agencies (derisively) refer to the hardworking people who are sent out to work on assignments.
Research has shown that agencies can stretch the truth about job assignments. In one case an agency offered to send a temporaray worker out to a job and the worker was told that the job would entail simply answering the phone. But once on the job the worker was asked by the employer (client) to perform a long list of duties and not one included answering the phone. In another case of abusive practices by a private staffing agency. An agency in Huntington Park, directed a temp., employee to a packing job and he was told that the job would include an 8 hour per day schedule. This employee asked the agency if there would be any heavy lifting and the agency responded that there was none. Once again the employee was asked to unload container trucks and to lift heavy boxes of merchanise. Furthermore there would only be 7 hours of work daily.
The victimized employee does not have any recourse to this abuse. Several attorneys contacted regarding labor law said that temporary employees have no standing to file claims for such abusive practices because employers in California may terminate an employee for any reason under the sun.
Staffing agencies generally charge employers double the rate for a worker assigned to a job. And that means that if a temporary worker is promised an hourly rate of $15 per hour then the employer client is invoiced for $30 per hour for that temp. Agencies will often retaliate against a temporary who makes a claim or declines a job assignment by simply ignoring them and hoping that they will just go away. A case in point is when an employee reports a claim of sexual harrassment. Although all agencies vociferously demand that ALL instances of sexual harrassment on the job be reported. Nevertheless, when such a report is made by a temp., then that temp is removed from his assignment and never assigned a job again.
These cases are documented and are not fictionalized. These and other abusive practices occur on an ongoing basis by staffing agencies in LA county. Temporary employees do not file complaints to their elected representatives for fear that they will be exposed by the former employer and making them a hot potato for other staffing firms.
Governor of California, as well as Mayor Villaraigosa are partly to blame because they tend to ‘look the other way’ regarding such abuse. In their mind it is best to keep these abusive employers in the region as long as they provide jobs. And they would argue that the employee does not need to work for an abusive private employment agency.
I would argue for the creation of an ombudsman to address cases such as the ones I have described while protecting the ‘whistle blower’. And also to protect the rights of the abusive staffing agency and the client employers.
In an upcoming report twenty local agencies were rated on a scale of one to five and five being best. The blind survey was conducted by asking volunteers who wished to participate. Each participant was asked only one question.