Joliet turns down another staffing agency

The city’s resistance to more temporary staffing agencies was on display this past week when a proposal for such a business on Collins Street was rejected.

Joliet at one time had a moratorium on staffing agencies, which often are used to provide jobs to temporary workers at local warehouses. No moratorium exists now, but the City Council has been reluctant to approve new locations.

Most temp workers are stuck in a rotating door of work assignments with very few being offered full time permanent work placement with benefits.”

—  Amy Sanchez, Warehouse Workers for Justice

The proposal that went to the council Tuesday was for a SURESTAFF agency to go into a future commercial building to be constructed at 235 Collins St.

“We’ve been inundated with these temporary staffing agencies along that corridor,” council member Jan Quillman said as she made a motion to deny the proposal.

The council voted 9-0 to reject a special use permit for SURESTAFF. The city requires staffing agencies to get a special use permit before they can open.

The council had previously heard from two representatives from the Collins Street area objecting to a permit for the agency.

“Most temp workers are stuck in a rotating door of work assignments with very few being offered full time permanent work placement with benefits,” Amy Sanchez said at the council’s workshop meeting on Monday.

Tanya Arias, president of the Collins Street Neighborhood Council, joined Sanchez in objected to the agency office.

“We definitely don’t see that as something beneficial to our neighborhood,” Arias told the council. “We don’t want our neighborhood to be seen as a temp staffing agency neighborhood.”

The city did have a moratorium on temporary employment agencies for about four months in 2001 when the requirement for a special use permit was put in place, according to a city staff report.

While there has been no moratorium since then, the opening of several new staffing agencies led to an outcry from the organization Warehouse Workers for Justice in 2018. They wanted the city to impose a new moratorium.

There has been no official moratorium, but the City Council typically has been suspicious of proposals for staffing agencies. One planned for Larkin Avenue last year also failed to get the required special use permit.