Major Mass. Temp Agency Signs Groundbreaking Agreement for Labor Reforms

Today, temporary employees rejoiced, knowing that this will be the last they will be cheated out of pay and vacation hours, or subjected to unsafe working conditions. What was first planned to be a protest by workers and their allies instead resulted in an unusual alliance between workers and management, jointly championing rights for a traditionally marginalized workforce and sending shockwaves throughout an historically rogue industry.

The former EDA Staffing employees had organized for over a year with the Chelsea Collaborative to end workplace practices that cheat workers out of their pay and rights. Over the coming months, their simple plea for just working conditions gained the support of community, labor, safety, and faith groups throughout the region.

After dozens of meetings, countless coalition-building phone calls and shared stories of payroll manipulation, dangerous working conditions and hour long commutes in vans so crowded strangers were forced to sit on each others laps, these united workers had the consensus and support to execute a public protest at the footsteps of EDA that would number in the hundreds.

But the protest never happened.

Instead EDA recognized the now enormous influence of these unified individuals, many of whom had recently immigrated to the United States. Fearing a public backlash, the staffing agency made the rare decision to meet with those who it had treated so terribly.

Under current law, temporary agencies are not regulated and are not required to provide essential information to workers about the nature of their job. With such a lack in state oversight, thousands of temporary workers each year are unable to pursue complaints of labor and wage violations, mainly because they often are never told who they are working for or where their employer is located.

The Chelsea workers knew this lack of oversight was the main cause of all their woes. Without a paper trail, the workers had found it all but impossible to prove underpayment, show their hours to receive overtime, or refute the cost of workplace transportation. The workers walked into the talks with EDA with one goal in mind – have one of the largest temp agencies in the state agree to abide by the groundbreaking reforms found in the Employment Agency Reform Bill.

The Employment Agency Reform bill would regulate all temp agencies in the state and require they give all blue collar temp workers a job order containing crucial information informing them of their job assignment, safety protection requirements, the name of their workers’ compensation provider, and more, mirroring the workers goals in everyway.

EDA always had the option to say no and return to their unethical but profitable practices but a united front of stakeholders can be a powerful influence to do the right thing.

So on a cloudy May morning, as cameras flashed and video camera were hoisted in the air to capture EDA owners, labor organizers and workers alike signed a memorandum binding EDA to the conditions found in the Employment Agency Reform Bill.

“I am happy to be able to make a difference because I know that there are hundreds of temp workers who are being exploited and working in places where their health is in danger and they do not have the tools and/or the basic information necessary to address work issues,” said Elmer Vela, one of many former EDA workers present for the signing. “I hope that EDA fulfills their promises and that the workers report any concerns. I also call upon other temp agencies to change their practices and treat their workers with respect and in accordance to the law."

To Vela those signatures transformed a former adversary into a welcome ally in the fight for fair and safe jobs.

With EDA on board, a new standard for the way temporary agencies operate in Massachusetts has been set and has made the business the largest temporary agency to agree to the bill’s simple but powerful policies. Not only that, but EDA has made a commitment to advocate that other temp agencies adopt the bills reforms before they become law.

Labor groups were also pleased to hear the news.

"We are delighted to hear that the EDA Temp Agency is responding to workers demands,” said Richard Rogers, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Greater Boston Labor Council, AFL-CIO. “When workers win, our whole community wins."

But the fight is far from over. Due to lack of regulation Massachusetts is fast becoming infamous for having some of the worst cases of temporary agency fraud in the country. In the last three years alone, owners of temporary agencies in Stoughton, Worcester County and Dartmouth (in 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively) were indicted for tens of millions of dollars of unpaid wages, workers compensation, unemployment insurance and taxes – two of which were included on the United States top ten fraud list.

“I am extremely happy and proud to say that our efforts have paid off,” said Leticia Gasca, a volunteer with the Chelsea Collaborative. “We hope that other temp agencies join us in this movement and that the state legislators pass the Employment Agency Reform Bill into law.”

So do we.

Jeff Newton is communications and membership coordinator of MassCOSH.