What is the Illinois Day and Labor Services Act?

It’s an Illinois law with new amendments that went into effect in August this year. The amendments give temporary workers new equal pay rights with employers who hire those temporary workers from staffing agencies that place the workers. The amendments also impose new duties on such employers and agencies to give additional safety notices and training.

Illinois follows the trend in other states which are bolstering rights of temporary workers.

Temporary workers assigned to a client for more than 90 days must get at least the same rate of pay and equivalent benefits as the lowest-paid comparative employee. That means the same rate of pay as a directly hired employee performing the same or substantially similar work under similar conditions with the same level of seniority. If there is no comparative employee, then the temp worker is to be paid at least the rate of pay and equivalent benefits of the lowest-paid, directly hired employee.

Instead of providing the benefits themselves, temporary service agencies can pay the hourly cash equivalent of the cost of workplace benefits. Clients of the service agency are to furnish staffing agencies with all necessary information related to the job duties, pay and benefits of directly hired employees to comply with the act.

And, before a staffing agency can assign a temp worker, it must inquire about the client company’s safety and health practices and hazards at the work site where the temporary worker will be assigned so it can assess the safety conditions, workers’ tasks and client company’s safety program. Also, before assigning temporary employees to work sites, staffing agencies are required to provide general workplace safety training. The training must include information on how to report workplace safety concerns and give the hotline number for reporting safety hazards to the Illinois Department of Labor.

And how are the staffing agencies supposed to know these hazards? Because the client companies must continually inform staffing agencies of any anticipated job hazards; review staffing agencies’ safety trainings to ensure they address hazards that exist within client companies’ industries; develop and provide specific training for client companies’ industries; and track trainings to ensure they are timely done.

Staffing agencies are also now required to inform temp workers in writing at or before an assignment of any strikes, lockouts or other labor troubles that exist at the work site. These notices must be presented in a language the worker understands (i.e. cut through the legalese cheese) and must inform temp workers they have the right to refuse the assignment and to get a different assignment.

Enforcement of this act was exclusively by the complaining parties through the Illinois Department of Labor. Now, any “interested party” can file suit. An “interested party” is any organization that monitors or is attentive to compliance with public or worker safety laws, wage and hour requirements or other statutory requirements. If they win, they get 10 percent of any assessed statutory penalties along with expenses and attorneys’ fees.

So there it is. A permanent new law to help temporary workers.

Some staffing agencies and client companies may view this as a permanent new headache for which no aspirin can give temporary relief.

Brett Kepley is a lawyer with Land of Lincoln Legal Aid Inc. Send questions to The Law Q&A, 302 N. First St., Champaign, IL 61820.