Highly Burdensome Staffing Bills Continually Introduced at State Level

Highly Burdensome Staffing Bills Continually Introduced at State Level

A long list of proposed legislation introduced in 2005 that would have proven overly burdensome to the staffing industry has been defeated by local- and national-level lobbying efforts, much to the relief of staffing agencies throughout the nation. The defeated legislation focused primarily on three main areas that affect staffing firms, including taxes, temporary labor and health care.

In Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Oregon, state legislators proposed special taxes on staffing services but were defeated by staffing interests. Texas legislators proposed a staffing services tax that would have helped fund education but could not agree on the details of the bill before the legislative session ended.

In Connecticut, a proposed bill was defeated that would have required staffing agencies to submit bill rates for nurses and nurses’ aides so that the state could determine if the rates were excessive. The bill, which would have further limited staffing firms’ ability to provide nursing employees, was proposed amidst one of the most severe nursing shortages the state, and nation, have ever faced.

In Massachusetts, legislators attempted to repeal a provision requiring temporary employees to call for new assignments before filing for unemployment benefits. That bill was also defeated, but represents just one of many hurdles erected by state legislators in their sometimes shortsighted attempts to regulate employment contracts and the actions of staffing agencies. Staffing firms and lobbying groups will continue to monitor proposed legislation in 2006 and will seek to provide a balance against such overly burdensome bills.