Every host city of the World Cup faced a similar conundrum less than two months ago: the unenviable task of assembling an ad hoc army of stadium workers, barbacks, security personnel, chambermaids, and other hospitality roles to accommodate world travelers.
The World Cup was projected to generate 74,000 temporary local jobs across the country, but nowhere was the surge felt more suddenly than in Philly. One analysis of local job markets found that, according to May job postings, Philly ranked #1 in pre-summer hospitality hiring. Those numbers reflected not only employers’ needs surrounding the World Cup but also America’s 250th birthday and the MLB All-Star events.
So, how did employers fill the gaps so quickly? Lots of them relied on staffing firms or temp agencies, which, across the country, have reported a meaningful bump as a result of the summer festivities. And while those companies fill a meaningful gap for employers, they can also, sometimes, create unsafe and exploitative conditions for workers.
In fact, despite the rapid growth of the temp workers — numbering some 2.5 million people in the U.S., compared to 1 million in 1990 — only four states have adopted robust protections for them, a group that does not currently include Pennsylvania.
“It’s the wild, wild west for temp agencies right now,” says Brittany Alston, executive director of the Philly Black Workers Project, which recently launched the All Due Respect Campaign as a means of spurring change. “You have fly-by-night shops that exploit workers, then change their name, and keep doing it. We also know that some of the top employers in the city use temporary workers.”
The exploitation of temp workers goes far beyond unequal pay. By and large, temps are not entitled to health insurance, paid sick leave, or overtime, no matter the length of their contract or how many times they’ve renewed it.
But the deeper issues arise from the “triangular employment” at the center of the temp-staffing industry. While workers are employed and paid by one firm (a temp agency) they perform day-to-day duties under the supervision of a separate host employer. Frequently, this triangular relationship results in a blurring of lines regarding labor practices and workplace protections. When ProPublica investigated California’s temp agencies in 2013, they found workers employed by those firms were 50 percent more likely to be hurt on the job. Worse yet, they were rarely awarded workers’ compensation.
“There has to be some kind of intervention,” says Alston, who notes a disturbing trend in the world of temporary employment: Bad actors tend to hire marginalized workers who face barriers to traditional jobs, including Black and Latino Americans. These firms often receive tax breaks, too. “It’s a lot of immigrants and folks who are coming home from jail,” she says. “They’re being funneled into low-wage jobs with less security, such as janitorial work, food service, and manufacturing.”
“It is my dream for people to have jobs that allow them to live the best versions of their lives and to feel like the best versions of themselves.” — Brittany Alston
The All Due Respect Campaign seeks to establish more transparency, accountability, and equal pay for temp workers at a local level. Among other objectives, the campaign calls for improved health and safety standards, pathways to permanent employment, and a public database of bad actors in the space. Backed by Councilmembers Nic O’Rourke and Kendra Brooks, members of the progressive Working Families Party, the campaign is expected to pick up in the fall during the next legislative session.
The Citizen spoke to Alston regarding the issues and solutions of temp work in the run-up to the World Cup matches in South Philly, where she performed on-site observations of stadium workers to gauge their labor conditions. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Malcolm Burnley: What are you trying to accomplish with the All Due Respect Campaign?
Brittany Alston: One, we want to build a base of organized Black workers who are otherwise invisible in these jobs and conversations around labor. We want to build a base of Black folks who feel powerful enough to change the conditions in their workplaces. We definitely see a route [to change] through some of the legislative work to really regulate the industry, but there is also power that comes from the workers themselves.
This is a conversation about people’s bodies being sold, and so we need to be having real conversations that might be hard for some folks, some employers, and it might cost them money, right? But if it costs them money to keep workers safe, and to prevent them from being exploited, we think that’s important.
What’s the landscape of accountability right now for the temp industry?
There’s just no regulation. In fact, right now, there is no registry for staffing agencies, which means that if they do violate someone’s rights, then they can just change their name. In some instances, workers go from Temp Agency One, who stole their money, then go apply to Temp Agency B, and be working for the same employer.
There’s also this unique intersection of exploitation. They hire a lot of folks who are coming home from jail and who can’t find jobs in more traditional employment. They’re being funneled into what we call the prison-to-temp pipeline, which actually has a robust infrastructure because of something called Worker Opportunity Tax Credits that allow staffing agencies to receive money for hiring folks who are formerly incarcerated. So, they’re looking for very particular groups of workers who are highly exploited and highly vulnerable.
How might employers that currently rely on staffing agencies be affected by reforms?
Huge employers, huge corporations are able to take advantage of this very particular workforce. Comcast, Jefferson, Temple, even the City of Philadelphia — they all use temp workers. If folks are not violating workers’ rights, then I don’t think this has to be a huge issue, right? I think that if people are interested in being good employers, they will be supportive. This is one of the only industries that actually makes money off people’s labor. That absolutely makes no sense, right? This is a conversation about people’s bodies being sold.
The employer ultimately has the power, right? The employer has to hire the staffing agency, so they should also be interested in a model that enforces rights and adheres to the law. Especially these larger employers that are hiring temp agencies at a high rate, they can have strategic enforcement or dedicated staff that make sure the staffing agencies are in good standing with labor. I hope that all employers don’t believe that profit is more important than people. If you’re opposed to change, you are deeply invested in the temp industry because you’re trying to save money on people’s labor, labor, trying to line your own pockets.
“If people are interested in being good employers, they will be supportive.” — Brittany Alston
What sorts of solutions are you hoping City Council or Harrisburg will take up?
We would like to see a bad actor’s database at some point, but all of that requires understanding about who’s in the landscape. Who are the staffing agencies? Where are they located? We don’t have that information right now. I also think that there’s a lot of work to do around building bridges between worker centers, like ours, and employers. There is interest from employers, some of whom don’t know the laws. We’d like to offer trainings that might support them in being better stewards of workers’ rights, as well.
Are there examples of places that have successfully implemented reforms?
I think there are actually some good models that allow workers’ rights to be protected. We actually partner with a company called Goodwrx, which is based out of Las Vegas, and they have worked in some huge cities with large food service and hospitality industries, like New Orleans and Las Vegas, where they’re partnering with employers to be good actors in the temp space.
If temp work is so rotten, do you ultimately see a future in which temp work will be phased out altogether? Is that the goal?
We [at the Black Workers Project] have this conversation all the time. But I’m not sure my opinion is all that important here. People are currently using temp work, so, as long as people are using it, it needs to be regulated. Of course, it is my dream for people to have jobs that allow them to live the best versions of their lives and to feel like the best versions of themselves. If that’s temp work for you, because, let’s say, you have some other supplementary income and you do temp work on the side, great. But if this remains an industry that people go to because they have no other alternative for income, it will continue to have collateral consequences — particularly in the lives of Black folks. It’s my job as an organizer to make sure that we have a pathway to make that work as dignified as possible, and then, maybe, we can move toward my freedom dreams.
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