A battle is brewing in Massachusetts over a bill that would overhaul the state’s current employment law – and could help regulate the increasing number of temp agencies that contribute to an underground economy.  The supporters of House Bill 1393, which has 88 co-sponsors, claim the state's current law is outdated and doesn't require agencies to provide written work orders for blue collar workers. If passed, the bill would also streamline the process that regulates and licenses staffing agencies.At least 100 workers and their supporters hit the streets of East Boston – a hotspot for day laborers – to rail against alleged abuses by temporary staffing agencies, most of whose workers are Latino. The demonstration on Thursday was organized by the Reform Employment Agency Law, or the REAL Coalition, which is comprised of temporary workers, community activists and faith groups that are pushing for passage of the bill.
“There are a significant number of Latino workers that are being employed in these low-wage, temp jobs,” said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, executive director of MassCOSH, the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, a non-profit that helped organize the event. “So they are particularly at risk because they’re the ones being sent off in many cases.”  A study released in June by the University of Massachusetts Amherst points to a growing trend of temp agencies that hire low-wage workers and commit abuses against them. In Massachusetts alone, 25,000 people work jobs each day in areas such as construction, landscaping, and fish and food processing.  And over the past two decades, the Northeast experienced a 68 percent increase in temporary help service employment, according to the study.
According to MassCOSH, a number of states such as Illinois, New York, and Utah already require temporary agencies to register and provide workers with a written job order. (click on link to read full story)