User:Erinlake/sandbox

How temporary agencies work
The role of a temp agency is as a third party between client employer and client employee. This third party, handles remuneration, work scheduling, complaints, taxes, etc. created by the relationship between a client employer and a client employee. Client firms request the type of job that is to be done, and the skills required to do it. Client firms can also terminate an assignment and are able to file a complaint about the temp. (Why don’t you wear a shorter skirt/exploring the inland empire)Work schedules are determined by assignment, which is determined by the agency and can last for an indeterminate period of time, extended to any point and cut short. (Why not wear a shorter skirt?) Because the assignments are temporary, there is little incentive to provide benefits and the pay is low in situations where there is a lot of labor flexibility. (Nurses are an exception to this as there is currently a shortage). (The role of temporary labor in tight labor markets/ Exploring the Inland Empire/ ) Workers can refuse assignment but risk going through an indeterminate period of downtime since work is based on availability of assignments, which the agency cannot “create” only fill. (Why not wear a shorter skirt/Exploring the inland empire)

The benefits of using a temp agency for Client Firms ((The role of temporary agency employment in tight labor markets) There are a number of reasons as to why a firm utilizes temp agencies. They provide employers a way to add more workers for a short term increase in the workforce. Using temps allows firms to replace a missing regular employee. A temp worker’s competency and value can be determined without the inflexibility of hiring a new person and seeing how they work out. Utilizing temp workers can also be a way of not having to pay benefits and the increased salaries of a regular employees. A firm can also use temp workers to vary compensation in what would normally be an illegal or impossible manner. The role of temp workers in the work space can also have the effects of coercing regular employees into taking more work for less pay. Additionally, temp workers are less likely to sue over mistreatment, which allows firms to reduce the costs of employment in high-stress, regulated jobs.

The Growth of Temporary Staffing Agencies
Temp agencies are a growing part of Industrial. From 1961-1971 the number of employees sent out by temporary staffing agencies increased by 16 percent. Temporary staffing industry payrolls increased by 166 percent from 1971 to 1981, and 206 percent from 1981 to 1991, and 278 percent from 1991 to 1999. (Temporary staffing industry growth imperatives) The temporary staffing sector accounted for 1 out of 12 new jobs in the 90’s. (Temporary staffing industry growth imperatives) In 1996, $105 billion, worldwide,in staffing agency revenues. By 2008, $300 billion was generated, worldwide, in revenues for staffing agencies. (Help Wanted) The Temporary Staffing Industry accounts for 16% of job growth in the U.S. since the great recession ended, even though it only accounts for 2% of all-farm jobs. (American Staffing dot net) This growth has occurred for a number of reasons. Demand in temporary employment can be primarily attributed to demand by employers and not employees (The role of temporary agency employment in tight labor markets) (The emergence of temporary work agencies)A large driver of demand was in European labor market. Previously, temporary employment agencies were considered quasi-legal entities. This reputation shied potential client employers away. However, in the later half of the 20th century, there would be shift predominated by legal protections and closer relationships with primary employers. This combined with the tendency for growth of the TSI in countries where there are strict regulations on dismissal of hired employees but loose regulations on temporary work, growth is much faster compared to industrialized nations without these labor conditions. (Temporary work in coordinated market economies) (The emergence of temporary work agencies)

Potential for abuse in the Temporary Staffing Industry
Because the agency (and temporary agencies are largely consolidated into a few big corporations) (Help Wanted) decides whether or not you work (i.e. whether or not you have an income), the worker is expected to go along with these imbalances of power. The agency itself creates the conditions for worker exploitation or adds to them. Temp agencies often create and reinforce an ethnic hierarchy that determines who gets what jobs. (Exploring the Inland Empire) Agencies will often pick up racialized preferences on the racialized preferences of client firms who use code words like “articulate” to describe the “type” of worker wanted. (Shorter Skirt) Temps are told to be a “guest” and not a worker, which leads to worker exploitation. Temps must show deference and are expected to perform a form of feminized hospitality. A ramification is this, is temps having to deal with sexual harassment and are encouraged not to report it, and in some cases encouraged to make themselves “sexually available”. Temp workers of color, often have to show increased deference, sexual availability, and attractiveness in order to receive assignments, more so than their white peers. (Why don’t you wear a shorter skirt?) An additional ramification of temp workers “guest” status is being at the bottom of the workplace hierarchy, which is visually identifiable on ID cards, in different colored uniforms, as well as the encouragement of more “provocative dress” (Exploring the inland empire). Their “guest” status often means, temp Workers are unable to access on-site workplace accommodations and aren’t included in meetings despite the length of their time working at the client firm. (Inland Empire/ shorter skirt/ Microsoft Case) This is all compounded by a work system in which temps must file complaints about clients through the temp agencies, which, often enough, not only disqualifies them from another assignment at that firm, it disqualifies them from receiving an assignment from that temporary agency. (Shorter Skirt), since a client firm is harder to replace than a client employee and there is no disincentive to not giving a complaining employee, an assignment; there is an incentive for agencies to find employees who are willing to go along with the conditions for client firms, as opposed to severing ties with firms that routinely violate the law (Shorter Skirt).