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Thursday, January 21, 2010

Assemblywoman Addie Russell:

Revelations about a ‘shadow state workforce’
are outrageous

Elimination of temporary agency workers would save taxpayers millions and
help close budget gap

“Between April 2008 and November 2009, more than $62 million was spent on
contracts for various temporary agency workers. The executive branch has been
exploiting a loophole to hire people during its own hiring freeze. In this severe
economic downturn, this is simply unacceptable. The Department of Health alone hired
hundreds of these temporary agency workers.

“To have outside workers performing jobs that can – and should – be done by
existing employees is a complete waste of state money, an expense New York cannot
afford in our current condition. I have been calling for the closure of this loophole for
months and I am shocked at the extent to which it has been abused.

“To mislead New Yorkers into thinking there is a hiring freeze and then pad the
payroll is outrageous. I am calling for public hearings, and I look forward to this
spring’s budget hearings, when state agency heads can detail use of outside employment
agencies so we can get to the bottom of this problem. New York State cannot afford to
waste a single dollar more on this shadow state workforce.”

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a retired NYS secretary it galls me to see the $$ spent paying temp agencies. We have a civil service list with lots of people willing to take either temp or perm/temp classifications until they can get a permanent appointment. On the other hand, the way this works in the private sector is that the cost of hiring through a temp agency saves the employer $$ due to the fact that they don't have to offer benefits of any kind. It's a good deal for the employer and a lousy deal for the worker because the temp agencies only offer crappy minimal benefits under the present laws. So...are we actually saving money? That could be. I'd like to see a cost comparison before we jump to conclusions.

L Williamson

Anonymous said...

What do you expect from a Govt infested by liberals?

Anonymous said...

This "trick" is done in all levels of govt. Civil service should be abolished or reformed.