Shortly before adjourning for the 2020 election, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) unveiled a massive labor rights reform package dubbed “The Worker Flexibility and Small Business Protection Act.” The bill covers a wide array of labor issues, and no federal legislation has focused on the temporary staffing industry in such detail since the 1980s. Labor powerhouses like the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO have already come out in support of it.

Among other things, the Worker Flexibility and Small Business Protection Act calls for

• Temporary employees to be employees of the clients under various federal laws, such as the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, Fair Labor Standards Act, National Labor Relations Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act, Service Contract Act, and others (this would appear to remove any joint employer analysis)
• Wage parity, with limited exceptions—and where there are exceptions there are wage mandates
• The creation of a national registry, with a $1,000 registration fee plus a $250 fee per office
• A ban on conversion fees
• A ban on permatemps—an employee who performs labor for an employer for 1,040 total hours during any 12-month period shall become a direct employee of that employer
• Right-to-know notices
• No assignments during strikes or labor disputes
• Document retention, including race and gender information; wage rates must be provided to client
• No transportation fees
• Two hours’ pay plus transportation costs if there ends up being no assignment
• A ban on charging employees for drug tests or background checks
• Penalties for violations

The bill is unlikely to advance in the current Republican-controlled Senate, but that would certainly change if Democrats were to win control of the Senate—bill sponsor Sen. Murray would most likely become chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. ASA will actively engage on the bill and any future iterations as necessary.