Normally I get back from the annual American Staffing Association conference and flesh out here five or so of the hottest memes offered up by the staffing industry captains. No need for that this year.
There was only one subject that dominated nearly every conversation. Only one subject that weighed everyone down during what is otherwise a great business year for staffing. One nightmare about to wreak havoc on the nation’s workforce.
without major change the law will literally destroy the temporary staffing industry in the United States
That subject of course is the recently passed healthcare reform with its worse-than-socialist provisions regarding temporary workers. Although the law is getting interpreted and reinterpreted by the day, the near universal consensus is that without major change it will literally destroy the temporary staffing industry in the United States.
Alarmist? Sorry but no, this is real. Jeff Joerres, CEO of Manpower and the keynote speaker Thursday, broke it down pretty clearly although few in the audience didn’t already have the numbers worked out for themselves: Any agency deemed ‘large’, which includes almost everyone down to the tiniest one office shops, is required to provide insurance for any temp working more than 120 days.
Joerres went on to explain how a not entirely dissimilar regulation in Japan recently resulted in the termination (firing) of nearly 23% of that country’s temporary workers. So what’s at stake here isn’t just the survival of our businesses, it’s the survival of our workforce ecosystem. The very system that serves as the workforce entry for millions of people each year – gone!
My kids, your kids, our country consigned to a way of life in which the only way up is to get the government to raise you up while pushing everyone else down.
My kids, your kids, our country are to be consigned to a way of life in which the only way up is to get the government to raise you up while pushing everyone else down.
I ask you, beg you, to get out and vote in the upcoming elections and throw out these bastards who seem to hell bent on destroying our free enterprise system.
