In July, King County was forced to pay 125 temporary workers nearly $18 million in damages. The workers who filed the class-action lawsuit claimed the county hired them through a "payroll agency" in an effort to deny them public-employee status and benefits.
Unlike regular temporary-help agencies, the county's "payroll agencies" paid employer taxes but maintained minimal contact with workers and left the dictation of job performance up to the real employer. The "permatemps" worked alongside regular county employees, sometimes as their supervisors, but were denied the benefits of public employees--including health care, sick leave and paid vacations. The workers claimed that since they had been hired by a payroll agency, not the county, they did not receive pay raises or higher pay based on experience. As part of the settlement, King County agreed that its departments will conduct annual reviews of hiring processes to ensure that temporary workers are legitimately so.
Three weeks after the King County case was settled, the city of Bellevue, only 20 minutes away from Seattle, also came to terms with workers who alleged that they had been misclassified as temporary. The city maintains that its use of temporary workers was lawful but that the temporary assignments got extended, often beyond 12 months. Bellevue paid more than $700,000 to settle the suit, and agreed to change practices so that people working longer than 12 months for the city will earn full-time status.
