Temporary Employees Wage and Hour Rights

Many companies in California use agencies to hire short-term or long-term employees. In some cases, this is to shift responsibility for basic employment obligations, like paying overtime, providing compliant mean and rest breaks, complying with California wage and hour laws or obtaining workers’ compensation insurance. If you are a temporary worker or an employee hired through a staffing agency, Labor Code section 2810.3 provides you with greater protection in connection with workers’ compensation, wage and hour rules, and workplace safety under Cal/OSHA. Before Labor Code section 2810.3 was passed, an employee bore the burden of proving a client of the staffing agency was a joint employer. If you have suffered wage and hour violations, the Los Angeles labor law lawyers at The Nourmand Law Firm are available to advise and represent you.

Labor Code Section 2810.3 increases liability for employers who use temporary staffing or who hire their employees through an agency. Passed in 2015, the law contains three new requirements related to their liability and your ability to recover compensation for a violation of the law.

First, employers need to share legal responsibility and liability for paying wages or failing to obtain workers’ compensation coverage with a labor contractor through which they retained workers. Labor contractors are entities such as temporary staffing agencies or employee leasing agencies that supply their clients (employers) with workers to perform labor according to the client’s customary work. The statute uses “wages” to refer to all amounts for labor performed by employees of every description, whether the amount is fixed or determined by standard or other methods of calculation. However, exempt workers like professionals are not covered by Labor Code Section 2810.3.

Second, clients cannot shift their legal duties to the labor contractor with regard to wages or workers’ compensation, or the requirements under Cal/OSHA. This means that a client cannot make a labor contractor the only entity responsible for complying with wage and hour laws and workplace safety. However, the client can ask for contractual indemnity against a labor contractor for any liability created by the contractor.

Third, when asked by a state enforcement department or agency, the employer and the agency need to provide all the information they have in order to verify their compliance with state laws.

A worker or a worker’s attorney is required to notify the client of any violations at least 30 days before suing the client. For example, if you have not been paid for overtime for the past year, you would need to provide a 30-day notice of this violation before suing the client. The client and the labor contractor are prohibited from retaliating against you for giving a 30-day notice or filing a lawsuit.

Labor Code section 2810.3 does not affect companies with fewer than 25 workers, including those obtained from the labor contractor. It also does not cover employers that use five workers or fewer supplied by a labor contractor. The law does not affect labor contractors that exist as bona fide nonprofit community-based organizations that provide services to workers or to certain apprenticeship programs and hiring halls operated according to a collective bargaining agreement. A homeowner receiving labor services at his or her home will not incur individual liability. There are also a number of other situations in which section 2810.3 does not apply.

If you have been harmed in a Southern California workplace as a result of violations related to wage and hour laws, workplace safety regulations, or workers’ compensation coverage, you can potentially sue not only a staffing agency but also the staffing agency’s client as a result of Labor Code 2810.3. At The Nourmand Law Firm, our Los Angeles labor law attorneys provide vigorous representation to workers who have been wronged in their place of employment. We advocate for employees who need a wage violation attorney or assistance with asserting other workplace rights throughout Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego counties, including in San Gabriel Valley, Van Nuys, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Palm Springs, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego. Call us at 800-700-WAGE (9243) or contact us through our online form to set up a free consultation.