State’s use of temporary workers debated
Part-time jobs are a part of our American economy, as are seasonal employment and “temporary” positions. These temporary workers fill in the gaps of the workforce, including at the State of North Dakota. Because these positions are understood to be temporary or seasonal, the workers at state agencies who fill these roles are considered to be contingent and unclassified, and they do not receive the employment benefits that the full-time, or even some part-time, classified work positions are given.
Is the system fair? Some argue that temporary workers are essential to the whole system, filling in when FTEs can’t, and that a full-time temp job is a way for workers to get a foot in the door toward finding something permanent. We hear this same argument made in defense of substitute and “community expert” positions in our teacher ranks, and with adjunct teaching assignments in higher education. But looking beyond the question of benefits to the employer, are contingent work assignments fair to the workers who fill these roles?
Leonard Tisi worked in multimedia for the North Dakota Department of Transportation (DOT) for seven years, and was classified as temporary. “I’m a retired federal firefighter, and I was retired at the time I got this job,” Tisi said. “So it was just a temporary job. I enjoyed my job. When I was hired on, I figured temp would be one year, two years, that sort of thing.” Tisi said his job duties included “anything and everything; whatever they needed.” He archived files, photos and videos, and would assist the videographer in recording videos, such as the demolition of the Memorial Bridge in Bismarck in 2008. “My hours were generally 32–35 hours per week, and I told them I wouldn’t give them 40 because I wasn’t full-time,” Tisi said. “Although I did; there were times I gave them 42, 45 hours. It all depended on what they needed. I wouldn’t generally turn down work if they had it. My job could have gone on for 20 years.”
Statistics provided by Human Resources Management Service show that 796 temporary workers were employed for the entire calendar year of 2013. Of that number, the solid majority of temps worked less than half-time — 578, or 73 percent. However, 65 temporary workers worked above 90 percent of a full-time schedule, which is based on 2,080 working hours in a year.
The Department of Transportation is one of the largest state agencies in terms of employment, with 1,169.5 total positions employed in 2013. Of that number, 90 positions were classified as temporary, representing about 7.7 percent of the total employees at DOT.
Fifty-eight of the 90 temporary workers at DOT worked less than halftime. “Some examples of these jobs would be pilots, special project coordinators and seasonal help,” said Jamie Olson, spokesperson for DOT. “The Department employs temporary construction help in the summer months and temporary snow plow operators in the winter months.”
Nine workers at DOT were employed at above 90 percent of a fulltime schedule in 2013. Working full-time as a temp can be difficult, according to Valerie Barbie-Bluemle, an NDU member, who was one of those nine workers. She started working at DOT in 2007 as an archeological intern, after having received her Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology from Minnesota State University-Moorhead.
“I was hoping that eventually it would lead to something permanent,” Barbie-Bluemle said. “I was also thinking that this will look good on my resume, and it would be good experience.”
During those years as a temp, Barbie-Bluemle didn’t have access to paid leave, so she would have to flex on additional work hours throughout the week to make up for time she needed off, or take that time unpaid.
She also got no employer contribution toward health insurance. “They didn’t pay any part of it,” she said. “You had to pay full premium, up until the Affordable Care Act kicked in on Jan. 1 of 2015. There was a time when I was paying full premiums at the state, because I could not get insurance and I wasn’t married, and so I was paying $400-something a month of my salary to have health insurance, because it would have cost me more not to have it.”
Temporary workers do not participate in the same group health insurance plan as permanent employees do, which is administered through Sanford Health Plan and features no premium costs to the employee. Instead, temporary workers can buy into a health insurance plan for approximately $544 monthly for a single plan, or $1,312 for a family. A part-time/temporary employee employed on or after January 1, 2015, is only eligible to participate if the employee is employed at least 30 hours per week or 130 hours per month. Premium payment by the employer is pursuant to the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
In addition, temporary workers can’t apply for mortgages or loans, as lenders won’t consider wages earned in a temp job. They are classified as “at-will,” and therefore have fewer job protections than full-time classified employees. Their pay increases are not tied to the same formula that is budgeted by the governor and approved by the state Legislature each biennium for all classified FTEs of the state. As a result, their raises can be arbitrary — larger some years, and smaller, or nonexistent, in other years.
In the last legislative session, North Dakota United worked with state Sen. George Sinner on a bill that would have automatically made any full-time temporary employee working for the state, who had been in their position for at least two years, into a classified full-time employee
(FTE), and they would receive the same benefits and compensation that FTEs of the state receive.
“Senate Bill 2290 was designed to address an issue that exists in state government regarding a loophole for temporary employees,” Sinner said. “In order for a state agency to create and fill a new position, they need to get approval from the state Legislature. As you know, many of our members of the House of Representatives are opposed to the idea of adding more people to the state payroll, regardless of whether or not the position is merited. As a result, very few new positions are approved each biennium, and agencies are often forced to do more with less. This has led to an increase in the number of long-term, fulltime, temporary employees. These employees do not receive the same health insurance, vacation, sick leave or retirement benefits that regular state employees get. To be clear, they receive no paid time off and no retirement benefits.”
According to Sinner, the Legislature’s reluctance to increase the number of positions in state government has caused state agencies to address needs by hiring more temporary workers, which do not require legislative approval.
“There is no limit on how long an individual can remain a ‘temp,’” Sinner said. “During the last legislative session, we identified 47 individuals who had been with the state in a temporary position for more than two years. The bill I sponsored would have, simply, recognized that their work was not temporary in nature and would have resulted in their being offered a full-time position with the state.”
SB 2290 failed in the Senate by a vote of 16–29. Opponents of the bill cited the high costs associated up-front with paying benefits to 47 workers. However, Sinner said the bill was intended to save the state money in the long run.
“If you accept the fact that state employees provide a necessary service for the people of North Dakota — and often at a discount from what their colleagues doing similar work in the private sector are paid — then the turnover encouraged by not paying benefits to these working people is indeed very expensive for the state’s taxpayers,” Sinner said. “I’ve seen studies that suggest turnover costs for replacing a professional position can be as high as 50 percent of one year’s salary, and that’s assuming you’re able to replace an employee with someone as qualified and talented as the person who left.”
For Barbie-Bluemle, staying in a full-time temporary position for eight years did eventually pay off. “I wanted to get into an archeological technician position, which is what I’m at now.” She was hired as an FTE with DOT, starting on Sept. 1, 2015.
Her position was created when the administrative assistant for her division retired. “And so my management put together a plan to merge what I had been doing with being an admin assistant,” Barbie-Bluemle said. “They figured in about 20 percent admin assistant duties, and then the rest cultural resources. And a lot of the other sections have taken on some of their own administrative duties.”
She credits her administrators and co-workers at DOT for helping her to get into a permanent position with the state. “This one was really unique, I think, in merging two different worlds,” she said. “Everyone at DOT has been incredibly supportive of me, and I’ve had good mentors there guiding me. I’m very happy with how things have turned out.”
For Tisi, the end of the road came for him seven years into his job, while he waited for a raise. “About two years prior to my leaving, they gave the regular employees, the full-time employees, raises,” Tisi said. “I’m not sure exactly what their raises were, not that it’s any of my business. But when they gave me my raise two years later, they gave me a 16-cent raise. And I just thought that was kind of ridiculous. They either don’t like what I’m doing for them, they don’t like me or I don’t know what. I just thought it wasn’t right.”
The day he received a 16-cent-per-hour raise, he said he felt unappreciated and decided that he needed to leave. “I wrote a resignation letter,” Tisi said. “I wrote, ‘I, Leonard Tisi, resign my position at DOT, multimedia department, effective immediately…’ and I got my badge and my
keys, put all of that together, and I put the letter in an envelope… but in the envelope, besides for the letter, I put 16 cents in there. It was just my way of saying, ‘Really?’”
He said he feels grateful for his time with the state, but that he was in a position that he could leave the job. “I didn’t need any of the benefits,” Tisi said, “Because I was retired, I was able to do that. Now you have temps there who are not able to do that. They have to stay there and take that raise, whether they like it or not, because they don’t have any other source of income.”
Tisi said he agrees with the approach that NDU and Sinner took in SB 2290. “Eight years is too long for a temp,” he said. “If you can’t hire a person after two years, you either let him or her go and just say, ‘Hey, we can’t do it,’ but don’t fill that position with another temp. Do without.”
