Workers Slap 10-count suit against Custom Staffing Solutions, Telemundo, 09.23.10.wmv

After many years of having their rights violated, employees went to their employer, Custom Staffing Partners in Gurnee, to ask for clarification of why their overtime was not being paid and why their checks frequently did not include pay for all the hours they worked. They asked for the billing records that Custom Staffing Partners charged the Waukegan factory where they had been sent to work, Artech Diversified, Inc---a right which is spelled out in the Illinois Temporary and Day Labor Services Act to help resolve pay disputes. Instead of respecting the right of these workers to inspect the billing records, Custom retaliated and terminated the workers. On repeated occasions, the workers and community supporters went to Custom to ask for their jobs back, to see the billing records and to be paid for the hours owed. Each time, Custom Staffing Partners refused to respect these rights.
Having exhausted every recourse, former workers of Custom Staffing/Artech Diversified will file suit in Federal Court to seek the justice which both Custom Staffing Partners and Artech Diversified have denied them.
The staffing industry is notorious for stealing workers' wages. In order to make extra profit, staffing agencies will often charge their client companies for all the hours a worker performed but then not include all these hours in the worker's paycheck. For this reason, worker-leaders forced the staffing industry to agree to include the right to inspect billing records in the Illinois Temporary and Day Labor Services Act in order curb wage-theft and resolve pay disputes. Precisely because workers fear reprisals for requesting the billing records on the part of their staffing agency employers, many workers do not request the records.
Custom Staffing Partners workers did make such a request and suffered retaliation as a result. Now these courageous workers will call on staffing employees throughout the region to stand up for their rights and demand that staffing agencies fulfill their legal obligation to open their billing records for inspection to resolve pay disputes.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Custom
• Staffing
• Partners
• Artech
• Chicago
• Workers
• Collaborative
• temporary
• staffing