Committee Hears Legislation on Temp Worker Rights

Friday, February 19, 2016 | 0

The New Hampshire Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday held a hearing on a measure that would grant temporary workers the same protections as workers in permanent jobs, according to the New Hampshire Business Review newspaper.

Sen. David Pierce

The committee debated, but did not vote on Senate Bill 407, sponsored by Sen. David Pierce, D-Lebanon, and instead scheduled another hearing for the bill on March 1. One of the key aspects of the bill would be to ensure that workers receive information on workplace safety policies of the employers they are placed with and how to file workers’ compensation claims if they are injured on the job.

Staffing industry representatives groused at the hearing that the bill seems to put all of the burden on the temporary agencies and none on the employers who are using the temps, according to the newspaper.

Under SB 407, a temporary staffing agency’s workers’ comp premiums would be based on the experience rating of the work site employer at which its workers are placed. Premiums would be based on the same classification codes that the worksite employer uses on its own workers’ comp policies.

Temp agencies would also be required to retain for a minimum of three years all records justifying the premiums the staffing agency pays.

The measure would also require staffing agencies to provide to temp workers a written summary of the worksite employer’s policies on employment discrimination and for filing workplace safety complaints as well as specific instructions on how temp workers can report health and safety violations to which they may have been exposed.