Temp Worker Discrimination Causes Permanent Damage By Dan Atkerson on January 27, 2016

A temp agency in Alabama heralded for its commitment to customer service is being brought down by that same dedication to customer satisfaction.

Automation Personnel Services Inc., provides temporary workers to clients throughout America. It is not entirely uncommon for them to receive special requests concerning who they send. In many examples, clients have requested temp workers based on their age, race, or sex, which Automation honored without question.

This commitment to getting the client exactly what they ask for constitutes workplace discrimination on multiple occasions. Often, clients make very specific and discriminatory requests. For example, a manufacturing plant manager in Georgia asked that he not be sent “any black thugs.”

Several examples were recorded in which clients specifically requested Latinos, women, or Caucasians while simultaneously demanding not to be sent someone covered by another protected class. More often than not, black workers were on the losing end.

One former employee described her supervisor as using the “N-word like it’s just second language for her.” She also says that there was a common practice of asking a temp worker to come into the office to get a map and instructions for a job they would be sent to, but the real intention was to see the color of the candidate’s skin. “If they were black, we had to tell them the job was cancelled or already filled by another recruiter.”

Temp Worker Discrimination Is Unfair and Unlawful

Racial discrimination, as well as other forms of discrimination, are an ongoing issue in America’s workforce today. Unfortunately, temp workers appear to be one of the sectors hardest hit by discrimination.

Do employers feel that temp workers are not deserving of equal treatment? Do they believe temp worker discrimination is not the same as worker discrimination?

Whatever their misguided excuses are, workplace discrimination based on any protected class is prohibited by federal law.