ZBA Ruling	Stop Labor Ready Comment
“…if accepted, each applicant will be called back only on the day of work.”	Either the ZBA fully misunderstood how Labor Ready operates (i.e., all workers must appear in-person every morning if they wish to be assigned) or they are choosing to use euphemistic language to describe a day labor operation. Workers are not individually “called back.” If a person passes the screening questionnaire, they are put into the hiring pool and if they are physically present at the time when Labor Ready has a suitable assignment, they are given a work ticket to go to an employer for the day. An accurate description would be: “People who are interested in employment will come to this location, they will be interviewed and if accepted they will be entered into the labor pool. People in the labor pool are not employees of Labor Ready. A person becomes an employee of Labor Ready when they report for duty on a work ticket. They remain an employee only through the duration of the labor they perform for Labor Ready’s client. The “employee-employer” relationship concludes at the end of the job assignment. It does not carry over to the next day unless the work ticket is for more than one day. Therefore, even a person who has been on single assignments for 30 consecutive days is not considered an employee on the morning of the 31^st day or any subsequent days until the person is assigned another work ticket.
“the individuals are screened for sex offenses which disqualifies them for employment.”	In their testimony, Labor Ready said that they would check people’s names against the sex offender registry. This means that people listed on the sex offender registry will not be sent out on work tickets from this location. It is unclear which database Labor Ready will be checking. If they do not check the national sex offender registry, then they will not be able to identify the approximately 100,000 sex offenders whose whereabouts are unknown. In addition, not all “sex offenses” land someone on the sex offender registry. For example, someone who exposes themselves to children needs to be arrested three times before they are placed on the registry. A person with only two arrests public indecency arrests would be eligible to be entered into Labor Ready’s labor pool.
“The applicant stated that when people are assigned to jobs they may come to the location or they may leave directly from their homes.”	This statement is false and misleading. The Labor Ready brand delivers on-demand workers. Only a small percentage of their workers do longer term assignments which would allow them to leave directly from their homes rather than reporting to Labor Ready for the morning. People in the labor pool have no discretion over whether or not they will leave from their homes or from the dispatch office. If they do not report to the dispatch office in the morning, they will not have the opportunity to be placed on work ticket. In their testimony, a company representative said, “If there is somebody who has a specific skill for a job and we know their number and they've worked with us we will call that person. But by and large the dispatch, the assignments happen at the branch… I, myself, got my job with Labor Ready because I decided I no longer wanted to sell my business and started working at a temporary agency. That agency would call me. But it was of a professional nature. It wasn't on demand. They would get the order, you know, a week to two weeks earlier. And it's a different model than what we have.”
“This site will operate from 5:30 AM – 5:30 PM six days a week.”	This site will not have continuous operation between 5:30 AM and 5:30 PM six days a week. On Saturdays they will be open from 6:00 AM – 10:00 AM and close their doors and then re-open from 4:30 PM-5:30 PM to distribute checks. Of course, this speaks to the loitering issue because where are people expected to go when they must return to the office to get their check but the building is not physically open? There have been many hours stated throughout the process but it is unclear what hours they will be held to as part of the conditions for their operation.
“The number of prospective individuals will range from 30 to 40 people in the winter and 50-60 people within the summer.”	Labor Ready clearly stated that they expect to “see between 30 and 40 workers per day in the winter and between 50 and 60 workers per day in the summer.” This number is a smaller range of prospective workers than they estimated in public discussions before their ZBA testimony. They did not offer testimony as to how many people they would “place” each day. Few day labor agencies are able to place 100% of the people who present themselves to the agency each morning. Therefore, according to Labor Ready’s testimony, they will “see 30-40 workers per day” and then some unknown percentage of those 30- 40 people will be placed. If Labor Ready was being truthful before the ZBA, then the volume of workers each day will be much less than we had originally expected. If they are correct, there will be less than 30-40 people returning for paychecks at the same time that the area begins to be congested with the school and Boys & Girls Clubs programs letting out.
“The majority of jobs are within one mile of the site.”	We are unsure as to how the ZBA came to this conclusion because Labor Ready never made this assertion. Labor Ready said that there were 10,000 potential employers within a three mile radius. They did not have letters of support from any nearby businesses saying that they would expect to hire workers from Labor Ready. In fact, a number of nearby businesses came out in opposition to Labor Ready.
“The block in which the office is located is commercial in nature.”	The block in which the office is located is mixed-use in nature. It contains zoning for a B3-2 Community Shopping District, multiple residence buildings, an R-1 district of single family homes and two schools, a community center and a park.
“A day labor agency will fulfill a need in the neighborhood.	Labor Ready did not submit any documentation supporting their contention that it would fulfill a need in the neighborhood. Their statements were therefore opinion and hearsay.