Should independent contractor aggregators such as human cloud firms that provide on-demand staffing and companies that manage pools of independent contractors — for example, Kelly Services Inc. (NASD: KELYA) and MBO Partners — form an association to represent the interests of independent contractors?

Kelly Services President and CEO Carl Camden broached the idea this week at a forum put together by the company.

Forming an association would give firms a greater voice in solving problems that independent contractors face than each firm going individually with different solutions to the same problem, Camden said. Right now, there’s no such platform in place, but there are problems that need to be addressed.

“I don’t want the bureaucrats to do it,” Camden said. “I don’t want the people who are not emotionally and intellectually invested in our workers and this engagement to do it. But someday it will be done; I would say now is the time and we are the people to do it.  We choose or we don’t choose.”

The forum, called “Advancing the Social Contract for Gig Economy Workers,” was put on by Kelly and sponsored by The Conference Board. It took place Tuesday in Washington DC.  Featured speakers included Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.; Rep. Dave Trott, R-Mich.; and Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich. as well as industry players, policy experts and a number of independent workers.

Based on its own research, Kelly outlined some of the challenges faced by independent contractors, or free agents, in press release prior to the conference. Those concerns included:

• Nearly half, 47%, of free agents feel “unprotected” without a safety net of traditional employment benefits.
• 59% of free agents believe the current protections for free agents are inadequate.
• 75% of free agents are interested in providing financial support for candidates and legislators favoring policies that provide better safety nets to free agents.
• 52% of free agents are concerned about the availability of health insurance, while 50% are anxious about the availability of retirement funding.
• While fewer than 30% of traditional workers say they would consider working as a free agent in the future, that number jumps to 47% if benefits were made available.

Camden said now is the right time to achieve progress through collective action.

Kelly Services is continuing the dialog online.