Exploitation of blue-collar temps is targeted

The Massachusetts House is considering a measure, supported by the Patrick administration and the attorney general’s office, that would bring temporary staffing agencies under the oversight of the state Department of Labor Standards; require those that employ blue-collar workers to provide written information to employees about safety, job details, and workers’ compensation; and streamline the registration process.

More detailed record-keeping will make it easier for the state to track companies and detect patterns of abuse, supporters say, and will provide proof of wages, hours, and employers’ names for workers claiming overtime or other pay.

“They need that paper trail to actually protect people from those labor violations,’’ said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health.

Some members of the industry support additional regulation. “If companies pay the people cash or pay the people without tax deductions, it hurts me because there’s no way I can compete with the [lower] rates’’ they charge, said Jose Avila, general manager of Employment on Demand Agency Inc. in Chelsea.

The agency agreed to support the bill after workers told of improper payment and sexual harassment and threatened a protest, said Goldstein-Gelb.

Currently, only professional staffing firms that charge a fee to applicants, such as recruiting businesses that find jobs for executives, are regulated. Temp agencies, which employ janitors, landscapers, and warehouse workers and comprise most of the state’s commercial employment-agency business, only have to register their names and addresses.

“We have a lot of workers who are in effect laboring in the shadows,’’ said Harris Freeman, an associate professor at the Western New England University School of Law in Springfield and study coauthor. “Temporary staffing has been used by lots of low-wage industries to really create a second-class workforce.’’