NJ Staffing Alliance Notes Vast Differences Between Staffing Agencies vs Uber’s Business Models and Treatment of Employees

• NJSA Cheers Fine Levied Against Uber, but notes it is unrelated to Staffing Industry and Pending Temp Worker Bill of Rights

• NJSA calls for Gov. Murphy to Conditionally Veto Temporary Worker Bill of Rights to Fix Critical Flaws That Could Threaten Jobs and NJ Economy

Trenton, NJ – September 20, 2022 — The NJ Staffing Alliance (NJSA) applauds the Department of Labor and the Attorney general for the $100 million in fines levied against Uber for fraudulent business practices and failure to pay into safety net programs that cover unemployment, disability, and family leave act. The NJSA notes that some media coverage of this news erroneously lumps Uber into the staffing agency industry when in fact, Uber is part of the gig economy, which has recently emerged, and is defined as work agreements between individuals or companies via digital platforms that actively facilitate matching between providers and customers, on a short-term and payment-by-task basis.

In contrast, the staffing industry, which has been around for 70 years, provides contract, temporary, and permanent placement employees to organizations across a variety of industries. The staffing industry is made up of a network of staffing firms that work with businesses as intermediaries to identify and fill their staffing needs. The staffing industry provides workforce flexibility, allowing companies to keep fully staffed during busy times, cover open positions until they can be filled, providing temporary support to major projects, and promoting business growth. Temporary employees equally rely on temporary staffing for job flexibility and diversity, skills training, and an entry point and bridge to permanent employment.

News coverage appears to connect the Uber case with the NJ Temp Workers Bill of Rights Bill A-1474/ S-511 that is currently awaiting Governor Murphy’s signature. The two are NOT related.

The original stated intent of this bill was to provide additional protection and transparency for temporary laborers within the staffing industry, including implementing a program identical to the successful Massachusetts Temporary Workers Right to Know Law  and increasing enforcement of current laws and regulations by state agencies against the few “bad actors” that are operating in New Jersey’s staffing industry. This bill will not apply to gig workers such as those employed by Uber.

As an organization that advocates for high standards of ethics and protecting the welfare of employees, NJSA supports the Bill’s goal to address “bad actors” in the staffing industry and protect temp workers, especially entry-level, low-wage, and low-skilled individuals. However, NJSA opposes the current iteration of the Bill which goes way beyond that objective by imposing crushing financial and operational constraints on staffing firms and their clients that will result in the elimination of temporary jobs for thousands of New Jersey workers including those who can afford it least.

The NJSA emphatically requests that Governor Murphy conditionally veto the Temp Workers Bill of Rights A-1474/ S-511, to allow fixing of several flaws that would place undue hardship on temporary staffing agencies and potentially force their closure and loss of jobs for thousands of temp workers. We have flagged four areas that create an unreasonable administrative or cost burden for staffing agencies that we ask Governor Murphy and legislators to address before this bill becomes law and threatens the existence of the entire temp staffing industry.

Some of the key changes requested include:

• the elimination of the requirement for client employers to divulge confidential and proprietary pay scale information of their employees along with requiring temporary worker pay and benefits match that of the client’s full-time employees;

• allowing state intervention in whether clients hire temp workers on as full employees;

• eliminating an entire new set of rules and regulations regarding transportation of temporary personnel (some of which conflict and duplicate existing ones) and instead focus on amending the current ones in NJAC 13:45B-12.3; and

• allowing each employee to determine their pay cycles, which could differ from the pay cycles offered by the employer’s payroll provider.

“NJSA asks for employers, staffing agencies and workers to join us in asking Governor Murphy to conditionally reject this bill. Without the changes we’ve recommended, rather than protect workers, it instead will significantly harm and reduce the ability of the temporary staffing industry to serve the citizens of New Jersey. Essentially it attacks and reduces the capabilities of the only New Jersey industry whose primary mission is to find employment for its residents,” stated the New Jersey Staffing Alliance .

Please join us in protecting workers and preserving staffing jobs by contacting Governor Murphy at protectnjjobs.com and requesting that he conditionally veto bill A-474/S-511.