Bill that would repeal Florida Labor Pool Act advances to full House

A bill that would repeal state law governing the day labor industry in Florida was approved in a House committee on Tuesday and now will move to the full chamber for consideration.

The proposal (HB 6033), sponsored by North Florida Republican Rep. Shane Abbott, is necessary, he says, because Florida’s Labor Pool Act, passed in 1995, is duplicative of federal labor law.

A Senate staff analysis says the state law “provides for the health, safety and well-being of day laborers throughout the state and outlines uniform standards of conduct and practice for labor pools.”

Abbott has said that Florida day labor employees (including those working in construction, hospitality, janitorial, and agriculture) are protected because Florida has its own version of OSHA, the federal Occupational Safety Health Administration.

There is one problem with that, Rich Templin of the Florida AFL-CIO told the House Commerce Committee.

“There is no state OSHA,” he said, referencing to the situation in 2021 when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called upon the Legislature to set up a state-run agency to supersede the federal OSHA because of COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the Joe Biden administration.

The Legislature passed such a bill, and DeSantis signed it in November 2021, but as WTSP reported at the time, the whole process of creating a plan “could take anywhere from two to five years,” and the law does not appear to have ever been implemented.

“A vote for this bill is literally taking away rights and protections of over a million workers in the state of Florida, including people in your district,” Templin said Tuesday. “When these labor pools realize that they’re not governed by state law anymore, bad things are gong to happen. And those workers are going to wonder how did this happen, and they’re going to look to you.”

Violations

One of the groups registered to lobby in support of the legislation is Pacesetter Personnel Services,which was the subject of a federal class action alleging labor violations in Florida, including failing to provide water and bathrooms on the job, overcharging for transportation, and failure to pay for time spent waiting for assignments. A federal judge in the fall of 2023 dismissed the plaintiffs’ complaints but said they could refile later..

“They’ve been sued for denying workers access to water, bathrooms, and fair pay, and now they want use to legalize that abuse,” said Jackson Oberlink of the progressive group Florida For All. “If you vote yes on this bill, you are siding with them, and I don’t think that’s who you want to be.”

“These workers already face low wages, unsafe conditions, and a high risk of wage theft,” added Jonathan Webber of the Southern Poverty Law Center. “The Labor Pool Act fills key gaps where federal law is silent or inefficient.”

Miami-Dade County Democratic Rep. Kevin Chambliss said that he has encouraged young men he knows who need work to participate in day labor pools. “If you’re there at 5:00 in the morning, if you’re there all week, I promise you at some point you’re going to be able to go out for work and at some point hopefully you’ll be able to be picked up by a company.”

Whether the bill will pass into law this year is in question, however, after the Senate bill (SB 1672) was temporarily postponed in the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee on Tuesday. There are no longer any committee meetings scheduled before the 60-day session is slated to end on May 2.