CWS 3.0: October 1, 2014

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When temporary workers strike

People new to the staffing industry might assume, given the events of the past week, working in the temporary staffing market might warrant hazard pay. If you look through Staffing Industry Analysts’ global news over the past week you would see a number of references to protests. If this was to be taken as a representative sample of the global staffing market, it might give cause for concern.

A utility company contract worker in Lebanon, as part of an ongoing dispute involving more than 1,700 contract workers, covered himself in gasoline and threatened to kill himself. Another protester at the same event cut himself until he was covered in blood in protest of their working conditions.

Contract workers at an electricity provider in the western Indian city of Mangalore demonstrated last week, demanding that they get paid a minimum wage that keeps pace with the rising cost of living.

Thousands of government contract workers in India’s IT hub, Bangalore, have announced that they will stage a protest in a city park next month, to force the government to pay them more money and secure better working conditions.

These headlines notwithstanding, temporary workers are no more prone to protesting or violence than any other type of worker. In many cases, temporary workers, especially those in the developing world, are too fearful of the repercussions to take such action against their employers and recruitment agencies.

But it’s not just temporary workers in the developing world that are lashing out.

In the Netherlands, an unnamed temporary worker entered an office of recruitment giant Randstad, poured gasoline over several of the desks, and set fire to them. Nobody was injured in the incident, and it’s still unclear why he carried out the attack.

The attack on the Randstad office, however, highlights that it can be easier to spot potentially dangerous changes in behavior in employees than it is in temporary workers. While the specifics of the case aren’t yet known, the arsonist was known to the Randstad employees, having worked via the recruitment firm in the past. What does this mean for employers of temp and full-time workers?

The short-term contracts to which temporary workers are often assigned means direct supervisors change frequently. Concerning changes in behavior are also less likely to be picked up given how poorly integrated some temporary workers can be.

A recent report from Robert Walters Australia found more than half (55 percent) of contract workers in Australia and New Zealand feel they are treated differently from permanent employees. This is despite 85 percent of employers believing contractors are treated the same.

Maintaining a regular line of communication with temporary workers could help recruiters identify concerning behavior sooner. The ease with which that can be done, though, depends on the size of the organization.