Modern Day Abuse of Temp Workers: Stigma of Temping and the Industry Practices that Impact Worker Health, Safety, and Social Mobility

Abstract

This project is examining the health, safety, and wage abuses of the temporary health industry both in its early history and in modern day society. Temporary workers are part of the contingent workforce that are independently affiliated, sub-contracted, or are semi-permanent workers in the labor market. The temporary help industry is often praised for adding jobs to the economy but many people do not know the underlying abuses that occur to many of its hires. The temporary worker is stigmatized, undertrained for its working conditions, invisible to much of the existing labor law, and unable to really move up the socio-economic ladder and these problems as a whole make temporary workers susceptible to health issues, safety hazards, and poverty. Without voices to reform and regulate the temporary help industry practices and its relationship with the business client, workers will continue to be exploited and endangered in the hands of both their employer and the larger corporation who are heavily dependent on these workers for profit.