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Showing posts with label Temporary work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Temporary work. Show all posts

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Employment Status An Issue: Who's their real boss

Today's post is shared from http://www.mercurynews.com
Who's your boss?
For an increasing number of American workers, it's a hard question to answer. To cut costs and avoid liability, more companies are hiring workers on a temporary or contract basis. More than 17 million people, 12 percent of the U.S. workforce, are now employed as temps, contract or freelance workers.
If you're a temp, which company is responsible for your pay, your schedule — and your right to a safe workplace? The agency that hired you, or the company that hired the agency?
The right answer, according to a group of temporary workers at a recycling plant in Milpitas, is both. They get paid by one company — Leadpoint Business Services — but work under the direction of a different one — Browning Ferris Industries (BFI), which operates the facility.
When temps at Milpitas filed a union organizing petition last year, they asked the National Labor Relations Board to recognize both Leadpoint and BFI as joint employers. Seeking representation by the Teamsters, the workers argued that since two companies share control over the work environment, both should come to the bargaining table.
The regional office of the NLRB disagreed, finding Leadpoint alone was the employer. The temporary workers have appealed. My organization — the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health — recently joined an amicus brief in support of their claim that both companies are joint...
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Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Temporary Work, Lasting Harm

Temporary workers are a major issue for safety regulations. Today's post is shared from probulica.org 

Ninety minutes into his first day on the first job of his life, Day Davis, pictured above, was called over to help at Palletizer No. 4 at the Bacardi bottling plant in Jacksonville, Fla. Above is a composite image of the times Davis is seen in a surveillance video before an all-too-common story for temp workers unfolded.

A version of this story was produced by Univision and will air tonight at 6:30 p.m.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – This was it, he told his brother Jojo. He would finally be able to pay his mother back for the fender bender, buy some new shoes and, if things went well, maybe even start a life with his fiancee who was living in Atlanta.
After getting his high school diploma, completing federal job training and sending out dozens of applications, Day Davis, 21, got a job. It was through a temp agency and didn’t pay very much, but he would be working at the Bacardi bottling plant, making the best-selling rum in the world.
Davis called his mother to tell her the good news and ask if she could pick him up so he could buy the required steel-toe boots, white shirt and khaki pants and get to the factory for a 15-minute orientation before his 3 p.m. shift.
Word spread quickly through the family. “Me and my brother was like, ‘Don’t mess up now, you got to do good, don’t mess up,’ ” said his younger sister, Nia.
It was a humid 90 degrees as Davis walked into Bacardi’s Warehouse No. 7 to the rattle of glass bottles,...
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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Temporary Holiday Workers Face Hazards of the Season

This holiday season, more than in the past, there will be a serious challenge to workers who are taking on temporary jobs. As the economy continues to be in the ditch, more people are being hired for jobs for which they are untrained and unfamiliar. Injuries will result.

Temporary employees who are injured at work are not accustomed to the procedural requirements to give their employers notice of the injury, and the correct manner and method to seek approved medical treatment. Additionally benefits paid to seasonal workers are notoriously low and paid sporadically so the computation of rate benefits becomes an issue.

See Eve Tahmincioglu's article, Tough economy makes holiday jobs a gift for many (msnbc.msn.com)

"In 2008, Andrew Sullivan lost his job as a sales and customer service supervisor for a telecommunications company and decided to take a temporary seasonal gig as a driver for UPS because he couldn’t find work in his field....." read more
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For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.