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The proposed rules require temporary workers who put in 720
hours over six months to be given full-time benefits or the cash
equivalent.
Frank Auriemma, president of the Staffing Services Association
of Illinois and CEO of Oak Brook-based Summit Staffing, said it
would become much more expensive for businesses to use temporary
workers.
“Their cost of the labor could out of nowhere jump 20, 30% in
some cases. What is that going to do to prices? Obviously, that
has to go somewhere. It all gets passed through to the consumer,
Auriemma told The Center Square.
Auriemma said companies could be forced to pay a part-time
worker on the job for six months more than a full-timer with ten
years of experience.
“That's just one example of a whole host of unintended
consequences that make this bill really, really bad for the
Illinois economy and the Illinois workers,” Auriemma said.
Auriemma said a provision making the rules retroactive to April
2024 would be immediately challenged in court.
The proposed rules stem from an amended House Bill 2862, signed
by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in August 2023.
Auriemma said the changes could lead to a resurgence of a gray
market for day labor and a potential shrinking of the tax base.
“You'd also be much more likely to see people that end up
working in off the books arrangements or working for companies
that are paying them in cash and doing other things that were
very common in all kinds of industries 10 and 20, 30 years ago,”
Auriemma said.
Following a IDOL’s public hearing on Wednesday, SSA urged the
Joint Committee on Administrative Rules to reject the proposed
rules.
Auriemma said about 800,000 people in Illinois work at some
point during the year as a temporary employee.
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