Companies have liability to temporary workers

• Published in: Supervision (Burlington) Vol. 59; no. 5; p. 20
• Main Author: Zachary, Mary-Kathryn
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Burlington National Research Bureau 01.05.1998
• Subjects: Americans with Disabilities Act 1990-US; Civil rights; Employees; Employment discrimination; Federal court decisions; Federal legislation; Garage sales; Labor policy; Laws, regulations and rules; Liability; Punitive damages; State court decisions; Temporary employees; Temporary employment; Terminations; Welfare; Workers; Workers with disabilities; United States > US
• ISSN: 0039-5854; 2150-556X

The EEOC in December 1997 came out with new enforcement guidance on contingent, or temporary, workers who are employed by temporary employment or contract firms, but are controlled at work in whole or in part by the clients of those firms. The EEOC believes that over 2.3 million persons are employed by the temporary help industry, but companies remain to some extent uninformed about the extent of their potential liability to those workers and assume the temporary agency is responsible for its workers. Companies that are subject to the various federal employment discrimination laws are liable for discrimination suffered by temporary employees and welfare-to-work employees assigned to them. Two cases involving the termination of employees are discussed (Kariotis v. Navistar International Transportation Corp. and Gibson v. Philip Morris Inc.).