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Film takes look at staffing industry, death of temp worker

November 03, 2015

A film, “A Day’s Work,” takes a look at the staffing industry — including the death of a temporary worker in 2012 during his first day on the job — and is now being screened at various US locations. The film came out earlier this year; its website lists eight showings with the next scheduled for Nov. 12 at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

The film’s trailer mentions the story of Lawrence Daquan “Day” Davis, who died in August 2012 after a palletizer crushed him during his first day of work as a temporary worker at a Bacardi bottling plant in Jacksonville, Fla.

According to a summary on IMDb.com, “A Day’s Work” includes a discussion with Day’s sister and “an investigation reveals the issues that led to Day’s death and how the $100 billion temporary staffing industry is putting millions of American workers at risk.”

“A Day’s Work” was a selection in the Manhattan Film Festival this year, according to the film’s website. One of its executive producers is Dave Desario, founder of Temporary Employees LLC.

Desario appeared in March at the 2015 Staffing Industry Executive Forum on a panel titled “The Opposition View,” that was part of a series of panels on different perspectives on the staffing industry. Other panels in the series included “The Wall Street View” and “The Academic View.”

The Opposition View panel covered several issues, including concerns that temporary workers may be more likely to suffer injuries than directly hired workers. However, some audience members argued that, in many cases, staffing buyers are creating unsafe conditions and not staffing firms. One point made during audience discussion at the panel session: It was a directly employed Bacardi employee who disregarded safety procedure and started the palletizer machine that led to Davis’ death.

Regarding the film, a spokesperson for the American Staffing Association says the organization is aware of it, but has not yet viewed the film.