Issue Papers

A 2006 California Supreme Court ruling raised concerns that temporary employees might have to be paid immediately whenever their assignments end on the theory that the end of an assignment constitutes a discharge from employment. Such an interpretation would have imposed an impossible requirement on staffing firms. Without legislative clarification, staffing firms faced the prospect of paying millions of dollars in wage penalties and costs to convert their payroll systems. To avoid that result, ASA and California Staffing Professionals, an ASA-affiliated chapter, sponsored legislation to clarify that the end of an assignment is not a discharge from employment. This issue paper explains the law, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2009. More ›