From MHL News, Adrienne Selko describes one company that was developing a staffing platform for temporary warehouse workers. Adrienne writes:
About one third of all temporary workers are in light industrial work; this includes pickers and packers, material handlers and construction workers.
When employed as an independent contractor, the major drawback is the lack of coverage for workmen’s compensation.
Gino Rooney, who worked in a warehouse while he attended college, felt there was a better way.
While taking a graduate class at Stanford, the purpose of which was to create companies, Rooney drew upon his experiences as a temporary warehouse worker and used that to create BlueCrew, a staffing platform for blue-collar jobs.
He wanted to improve the transparency into these jobs by taking out the middleman. Using an app, workers can register directly with an employer, rather through an agency, and employers can view candidates directly.
While the initial push was for transparency, BlueCrew’s key tenet is to “change the way companies staff and empowering workers in the gig economy to move from contract work to opportunities with a clear career path.”
The first step to providing this is to make candidates W2 employees. This entitles employees to insurance coverage, which was of utmost importance to Rooney. “This is a vertical where accidents are more likely and I feel strongly that workers needed to be covered by worker’s compensation.”
W-2 status also provides the full range of non-discrimination protection (including wage and hourly laws), which is not provided to 1099 employees.
Read the full story at Temporary Warehouse Workers W-2 Status | Labor Management
