Advocacy News – June 14, 2023
The House Labor Committee heard testimony last Thursday on legislation creating substantial new administrative and recordkeeping requirements on temporary staffing agencies and the businesses that use them.
The bill (HB 4034, Rep. Hope) contains nine separate sections creating new mandates related to employee disclosure, recordkeeping, registration, payment, and more. These disclosure and notification requirements and related penalties would apply to temporary staffing agencies as well as their clients. The new requirements, some of which have same day turn around requirements, will increase costs for agencies and clients and create administrative burdens. The bill would also prohibit agencies from providing temporary laborers to a job site where a strike, lockout or other labor dispute exists.
The MI Chamber testified in opposition to the bill due to the impact it would have on businesses using temporary employees in nearly every sector of the economy and in every category, from industrial labor to office support to health care to various administrative, professional and managerial positions. The MI Chamber also drew the committee’s attention to the strike/lock-out provisions and pointed out that the courts have struck down these provisions in other states because the language is preempted under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
The MI Chamber will continue to argue that it is counterintuitive to pursue legislation adding new hurdles and costs for businesses using temporary staffing agencies. In this tight labor market, businesses have no choice but to use temporary employees to supplement their regular workforces, fill in for absent employees, manage seasonal workloads and staff special projects.
While House Bill 4034 is intended to “protect” workers and somehow stop “wage theft,” it will in fact diminish opportunities for workers, creating short-term opportunities that may provide job flexibility, skills training and bridge employment gaps. Because wage theft is illegal under Michigan law today, it remains unclear how this bill remedies abuses.
We do not expect this legislation to move prior to the Legislature’s summer recess but it remains possible that the bill will be considered again this fall. Please contact Wendy Block with questions at wblock@michamber.com.