Skip ads and navigation
Advertising
Our network sites seattlepi.comHelp

'Permatemps' win suit against King County

Thursday, November 25, 1999

By MAGGIE LEUNG Mail Author
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Susan Coles went five years without health insurance, sick leave and pension benefits -- all while she was working full-time for county government.

That's because she was a "permatemp."

But hiring full-time employees and calling them temps isn't a legal dodge for denying them benefits, Superior Court Judge Kathleen Learned ruled this week.

The ruling could cost King County a million dollars or more in damages. The exact amount and the number of employees affected by the class-action suit are still being determined. But hundreds of workers are expected to benefit.

For at least a decade, county permatemps have done the same work as permanent employees, who earned benefits. Some permatemps have done the same job for years.

When Metro hired Coles in 1990, "they said it was a temporary job," she said. She wound up staying until 1995, when she was laid-off.

As a Metro media relations assistant and an administrative assistant, Coles had her own desk, drove department cars and gave public talks on Metro's behalf.

Other permatemps worked throughout Metro and then for the county after the two agencies merged in 1996. The permatemps, ranging from secretaries to architects, earned between $25,000 and $60,000 a year.

In many cases, the county would pick potential hires, decide their duties and wages, then tell them to sign up with a temp agency. The county would pay the agency, which in turn would pay the employee.

But aside from sending in timecards and receiving paychecks, many permatemps rarely had contact with their temp agencies. That's because the permatemps actually worked for the county, Learned ruled.

The judge cited this evidence:

  • The former Metro Council set a ceiling on the number of permanent employees on its "official" payroll and authorized the hiring of temps. The county was told that Metro managers would supervise the permatemps, but it could save money on employee benefits.

  • In internal e-mail, a Metro lawyer acknowledged that representing permatemps as temporary workers rather than county workers was "flaky."

  • A 1995 county audit and a 1996 county report concluded that Metro was wrongly classifying workers.

    The judge's decision protects all workers' rights, said plaintiffs' attorney Judith Bendich.

    Referring to a similar class-action lawsuit that Microsoft lost to other permatemps, Bendich said: "The practice was the same: You take your employee to an outside agency for 'payroll laundering.'"

    Bendich's law firm still needs to identify hundreds of workers who no longer work for the county. Once they are identified, another hearing will determine what damages each will receive.

    County officials had not yet seen the ruling and could not discuss specifics about the decision, attorney Susan Slonecker said yesterday.

    The decision does not cover short-term temps or individuals employed by consulting firms.

    For information

    For more information on the ruling, go to www.bs-s.com Or call 206-622-3536 after business hours to leave a message for a claims form.

    P-I reporter Maggie Leung can be reached at 206-467-1039 or maggieleung@seattle-pi.com

    • OUR AFFILIATES
    NWsource KOMO
    Pacific Publishing

    Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    101 Elliott Ave. W.
    Seattle, WA 98119
    (206) 448-8000

    Home Delivery: (206) 464-2121 or (800) 542-0820
    seattlepi.com serves about 1.7 million unique visitors
    and 30 million page views each month.

    Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com
    Send investigative tips to iteam@seattlepi.com
    ©1996-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Terms of Use/Privacy Policy

    Hearst Newspapers