On Jan. 6, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed legislation (HB 45) passed by the legislature minutes before lawmakers adjourned in December. The bill was an end-of-year package that originally included provisions from several other bills—including HB 466, which was introduced earlier last year at the behest of nursing homes and which would have imposed rate caps, registration, and reporting requirements on health care staffing firms.

ASA and its Ohio state lobbyist Andy Bowers of the Park Street Law Group waged an intense lobbying campaign to strike the rate cap and other mandates on health care staffing firms from HB 45. The final bill signed by the governor contained none of the onerous language from HB 466, but it did include a one-time payment of $350 million to nursing homes for workforce support. Nursing homes can’t use this money to pay for staff from staffing agencies, but the additional funding is expected to mitigate some of the cost pressures that precipitated last year’s attack on staffing.

Notwithstanding the additional funding, nursing homes may renew their efforts to regulate the staffing industry during the 2023 legislative session. ASA will continue to monitor developments and engage if necessary.

For the third month in a row, an intense advocacy effort caused another postponement of a vote by the New Jersey State Senate on A 1474, ending any chance of passage this year. The effort was led by ASA; the New Jersey Staffing Alliance, an ASA-affiliated chapter; and their member staffing agencies.

The bill, which applies to construction, light industrial, and other workers—but not professional or clerical workers—would, among other things

• Mandate temporary employee wages and benefits equivalent to those received by client employees performing similar work
• Limit conversion fees
• Prohibit agencies from charging a fee for providing transportation

ASA and NJSA engaged in an extensive grassroots campaign throughout the year, explaining to senators why the bill is bad for workers and the staffing industry. The associations will continue to work with senators and the governor’s office on a compromise bill that will protect workers without harming significant segments of the New Jersey staffing business.

The next opportunity for the senate to take up A 1474 will be next year, on Feb. 2.

The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection has announced it will delay enforcing the city’s artificial intelligence law (Local Law 144), which has an effective date of Jan. 1, 2023.

Details from the department’s December 2022 Update include the following: “DCWP is working on rules for Local Law 144 of 2021 (automated employment decision tools). Due to the high volume of public comments, we are planning a second public hearing. In the meantime, we will not enforce Local Law 144 until April 15, 2023.”

ASA, along with the New York Staffing Association and its lobbying firm Constantinople & Vallone Consulting, have engaged with DCWP such that any final rules take into account industry concerns. ASA will continue to work with the agency and will keep members apprised as the rulemaking process continues to unfold.

In a major win for the staffing industry, the New Jersey State Senate chose yesterday not to vote on Gov. Murphy’s conditional veto of A 1474, an onerous bill that would make it harder for staffing agencies to do business in the Garden State. ASA; the New Jersey Staffing Alliance, an ASA-affiliated chapter; and staffing agencies engaged in intense advocacy, resulting in the bill being pulled from consideration because the senate did not have enough votes for passage. This marks the second time the vote was tabled, as advocacy forestalled the bill’s passage in October.

A 1474, which applies to construction, light industrial, and other workers—but not professional or clerical workers—would, among other things

• Require staffing agencies to pay at least the average rate of pay, as well as the average cost of benefits or the cash equivalent, of what client employees performing the same or substantially similar work receive
• Impose a limitation on conversion fees
• Prohibit agencies from charging a fee for providing transportation

ASA and NJSA engaged in a prolonged grassroots campaign, explaining to senators why the bill is bad for workers and the staffing industry, and were successful in persuading one senator to introduce an alternative, more palatable, bill.

On Oct. 6, Sen. Holly Schepisi introduced S 3182. Modeled after the Massachusetts Temporary Worker Right to Know law, the legislation contains several provisions found in A 1474 that protect temporary employees but presents fewer operational issues for staffing agencies.

The senate may still take up A 1474 on Dec. 22. Between now and then, ASA will continue to urge senators to support S 3182 as a compromise bill. ASA and NJSA also will be reaching out to staffing agencies doing business in New Jersey to ask them to contact their state senators to support S 3182.

Last week, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law HB 2293, a bill establishing registration and oversight of contract health care services agencies. The law applies to temporary health care services agencies that provide employees to assisted living communities, personal care homes, and nursing homes.

Among other things, the new law requires covered agencies to register with the state; pay an annual registration fee; and provide health care facilities with documentation that any personnel assigned to the facility meets all licensing, certification, training, and continuing education standards. The bill also eliminates the use of noncompete agreements by both the health care services agency and the health care facility.

The original version of the bill, which was introduced in January during the surge of the Covid-19 omicron variant, contained language that would have capped what a health care services agency could charge a health care facility at 150% of the average rate for the service as determined by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. Health care services agencies would have also been required to file annual cost reports with the department. ASA, working with its lobbyist Emerald Strategies, was successful in getting those provisions stripped from the bill.

Proponents of the legislation have vowed to continue to push for rate caps in future legislation, which ASA would vigorously oppose.

In a major win for the staffing industry, the New Jersey State Senate chose earlier this week not to vote on Gov. Murphy’s conditional veto of A 1474, an onerous bill that would make it harder for staffing agencies to do business in the Garden State. ASA; the New Jersey Staffing Alliance, an ASA-affiliated chapter; and staffing agencies engaged in intense advocacy, resulting in the bill being pulled from consideration because the senate did not have enough favorable votes for passage.

A 1474, which applies to construction, light industrial, and other workers—but not professional or clerical workers—would

• Require staffing agencies to pay at least the average pay and cost equivalent of benefits received by client employees performing the same or substantially similar work
• Impose a limitation on conversion fees
• Prohibit agencies from charging a fee for providing transportation

ASA and NJSA engaged in a prolonged grassroots campaign, explaining to senators why the bill is bad for workers and the staffing industry, and were successful in persuading one senator to introduce an alternative, more palatable, bill.

On Oct. 6, Sen. Holly Schepisi introduced S 3182. Modeled after the Massachusetts Temporary Worker Right to Know law, the legislation contains several provisions found in A 1547 that protect temporary employees but presents fewer operational issues for staffing agencies.

The senate’s next scheduled voting session is Monday, Nov. 21, when the body could take up A 1474. Between now and then, ASA and NJSA will continue to meet with senators and urge them to support S 3182 as a compromise bill. ASA also will be reaching out to staffing agencies doing business in New Jersey to ask them to contact their state senators to support S 3182.

Weary from spending the last two years focusing on pandemic-driven legislative agendas, state and federal lawmakers started the new year focused on the upcoming elections and a return to “normal” legislative issues. However, the first half of the year was defined by a legislative effort aimed at one of the most important segments of the industry: health care staffing. Nurse staffing agencies, which months earlier were being lauded as playing an integral part in fighting the pandemic, found themselves the subject of proposed restrictive legislation.

But it wasn’t just nurse staffing that was the target of state and federal legislatures. Bills and initiatives dealing with employers’ use of artificial intelligence, pay disclosure, predictive scheduling, and other issues made the beginning of 2022 particularly busy for the staffing industry in state houses across the country.

Through it all, ASA secured major legislative victories in an effort to ensure that its members could remain unencumbered in placing people in jobs.

Responding to claims of potential unfair pricing by hospitals, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities, legislatures in 14 states—California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island—considered legislation that would regulate how nurse staffing agencies operate. Almost all of the proposals would have placed limits on what staffing agencies could charge for nurse staffing services.

In response, ASA and its outside lobbyists, along with a broad coalition of nurse staffing agencies, engaged in prolonged and extensive advocacy to explain that the proposals were the wrong solution and, if enacted as drafted, would further aggravate the current nursing shortage.

As a result of these efforts, no legislation containing rate caps passed. However, several states enacted bills that regulate various aspects of operation. For an updated list of all the bills’ status and what they would mandate, visit americanstaffing.net.

On June 29, a last-minute procedural issue prevented the New Jersey legislature from passing A 1474/S 511, an onerous bill that would make it much more difficult for staffing agencies to do business in the state. Further action on the legislation is likely to take place next month.

Earlier this year, leadership of the New Jersey Staffing Alliance, an ASA-affiliated chapter—as well as ASA staff—met with the sponsors of the legislation to discuss amendments crucial to the staffing industry. After several conversations, an amended version of the bill was published. The amended bill was marginally better, but many industry suggestions were not included.

Yesterday, NJSA and ASA officials met with Sen. Cryan, primary sponsor of S 511, and urged the legislature to adopt the staffing industry’s amendments. A follow-up meeting with the senator and industry representatives will be scheduled for later this month.

The New Jersey Senate is scheduled to come back into session, and it is widely anticipated that the senate will take up A 1474/S 511 at that time. Gov. Phil Murphy has said he will issue a conditional veto of the bill, so NJSA and ASA also are working with the governor’s office. ASA will continue to keep members updated on this important situation as developments unfold.