Non-regular workers typically earn half as much as regular workers for comparable work.
34 The working conditions of non-regular workers are known to be very poor compared with those of regular workers in terms of salary and welfare systems, 26 and opportunities to be a full-time regular worker are very limited.
Given the same uniforms as the regular workers, the interns' training was rudimentary.
Among workfare participants there are two common refrains: if only they earned as much as the regular workers, and if only the city would hire them as permanent workers.
The number of temporary workers in blue-collar jobs and in the economy as a whole has increased steadily for the last two decades, and Goldstein-Gelb argued that Congress should make clear that employers have the same responsibilities to temporary personnel as to regular workers.
The lawsuit cites guidance from the state Labor Department that says: "If an employer uses trainees as substitutes for regular workers or to augment its existing work force during specific times or in general, these interns would be treated as employees".
Under the law, corporations are free to use long-term temps, but these workers are increasingly suing companies, asserting that they deserve the same benefits as regular workers.
Microsoft reached this settlement, one of the largest ever received by a group of temporary employees, after the workers had sued the company, maintaining that they were actually permanent employees, not temporaries, and therefore deserved the same benefits as regular workers.
"We're doing the same jobs as regular workers, but we're not getting paid for it," said Ms. Mathis, the Health Department cleaner, who works 24 hours a week and receives not wages but a $124 welfare check every two weeks and Medicaid coverage.
The new legislation allows companies the flexibility to hire and fire contract workers while enabling contract workers to earn the same wage as regular workers for the same work.
