11:52 PM PDT on Monday, March 24, 2008

Riverside County increasingly is using temporary employees to provide services, a situation that translates into lower pay and lessens the quality of work, a study set for release today concludes.

County officials disagree with the study's assertion that temporary workers make up as much as 10 percent of the county's nearly 20,000 employees, up from 2 percent when the Board of Supervisors created an in-house temporary employment program in 1998.

The San Diego-based Center on Policy Initiatives conducted the study and will present the findings today at the Board of Supervisors' meeting.

The county shouldn't use the employees to do the same work as permanent workers, said Donald Cohen, executive director of the nonprofit research and advocacy organization.

"When we say temporary, we should mean temporary," he said.

Riverside County officials called the study's numbers and conclusions inaccurate Monday, saying the Temporary Assignment Program has proved effective and can improve the level of services.

The county created the program a decade ago after the amount it was paying to private employment agencies began to skyrocket. The cost in 1997 was more than $5 million.

The release today of the Center on Policy Initiatives' study comes on the heels of an effort this month by the Service Employees International Union to organize workers in the county's Temporary Assignment Program.

The union's Local 721 represents 80,000 government employees around Southern California.

In addition, the Legislature's Joint Audit Committee voted this month to require California's state auditor to investigate the use of temporary workers in local government. The audit will examine six counties, including Riverside, Kern and San Joaquin.

Ron Komers, Riverside County's human resources director, called the move "politically motivated."

Limited Benefits

The center's study says the county can leverage its size as an employer to create well-paying jobs and to increase residents' economic security.

"Temporary workers are paid less than permanent workers with the same qualifications doing the same job, and they don't receive health benefits, Social Security, sick leave or vacation time," the study concludes. "Temporary job assignments may end abruptly, severing the continuity necessary for quality services such as medical care and legal advice."

The study says the county has about 2,100 temporary workers, more than twice as many as other nearby counties. San Bernardino County has 790 temporary workers among its 18,000 employees, the study found.

Cohen said there are legitimate uses for temporary workers. But, having too many temporary workers rotating in and out of positions affects the quality of work, he said in a telephone interview.

"If you have constant turnover, that is a direct hit" on the level of services, Cohen said.

Counties that use private temp agencies are bound by state law to use the workers for no more than 90 days. The Riverside County-run program has no limit.

Komers said the average number of employees enrolled in the program is about 1,200, or about 6 percent of the county's 19,669 workers.

The workers in the county's temporary program earn 5.5 percent less than equivalent permanent employees and do not receive health insurance benefits. They are enrolled in a separate retirement program, Komers said.

County officials contend that many employees prefer the flexible work schedule and, when deductions are taken into account, often have more take-home pay. Half of the workers in the temporary program eventually become permanent employees, Komers said.

Komers said the average hourly pay rate for temporary workers is $16.41. Excluding nurses, the study pegs the median hourly rate for temporary workers in November at $11.30.

"When a department requests a temporary worker, they must certify that the assignment is for six months or less, that it is, in fact, temporary," Komers said.

He personally approves any temporary work beyond six months.

Komers said when the county created the program, officials agreed to pay the temporary workers in the program less as a concession to local unions.

The Center on Policy Initiatives has connections to organized labor, including the Service Employees International Union. The center receives about 2 percent of its funding from unions and other community groups, according to its Web site.

State Audit

Meanwhile, Assemblyman Sandré R. Swanson, D-Oakland, chairman of the Labor and Employment Committee, requested the state audit.

He introduced legislation last year that would have required boards of supervisors to specify an end date for temporary county work. The bill stalled in the Senate, according to Swanson's office. Riverside County was selected after being brought to Swanson's attention by Service Employees International Union.

Komers said the county will cooperate with the audit, but he called it an attempt to bolster the union's efforts to organize temporary workers across the state.

Annelle Grajeda, president of the union's Local 721, said Monday that she doesn't believe the state audit is politically motivated.

"There is a legitimate use for temporary workers," she said. "But ... I think these programs have gotten out of hand."

Reach Duane W. Gang at 951-368-9547 or dgang@PE.com