NEW JERSEY — Getting stiffed on overtime. Being forced to work grueling 12-hour shifts with nothing but a 30-minute lunch break. Sweating through double shifts in a warehouse with no air conditioning in the middle of summer. This is what it's like to try and earn a living as a permanent "temp" worker, according to advocates.
There are more than 127,000 workers in New Jersey employed by temporary staffing agencies, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many of them are crucial to maintaining the supply chain up and down the Interstate 95 corridor, sweating in warehouses to unpack shipped goods and repackage them for consumers.
But for far too many of these workers, a typical day on the job includes abuse, wage theft, age discrimination and unsafe work conditions, according to Make the Road New Jersey and New Labor.
Earlier this month, the groups released a report dubbed "Essential and Unprotected: Temporary workers in New Jersey." The report was based on interviews with dozens of workers employed by temp agencies in the warehouse and logistics and manufacturing sector in New Jersey conducted between 2020 and 2022. Read it here.
Many of the workers said "temporary" jobs are how they make their living year-round. Vincente R., whose last name was withheld in the report, said he's worked for temp agencies for more than 16 years.
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