ALT-1 How to File Complaints regarding Employment Services or Staffing Agencies
Every state has a protocol to follow in filing complaints regarding employment service or staffing agencies, and your state's Department of Labor is the place to find out all about the 'hoops' involved. Where I currently make my main camp, the agency's name was changed a couple of years ago to Department of Labor and Human Rights, for whatever that is worth to you.
If you can't find it in an online search of your state's official government web site, which will have a URL something like "www.xx.gov", find your Secretary of State's page on your state's web site, and ask them. They should answer your inquiry with all the information you need to begin filing your complaint.
Many people are so disgusted with whatever experience(s) they have to complain about that their only thought is to leave it behind, but this is a bad thing to do, because it does nothing to correct the problem, thus leaving it to grow worse. Trust me, this is what will happen if YOU don't file YOUR complaint. I have complained and filed repeatedly about discrimination against us ITI, but for some unknown reason, other ITI up here tend not to file, with the result that officials in the Department of Labor here have actually stated publicly that "since we receive almost no complaints from Indns other than XXXX, it is obvious there is no real problem and she over-blows the situation". NOT TRUE, but bureaucrats only go on data in their files, takoszja..
When 57% - 59% of a state's welfare budget is consumed by its Indigenous population - and that population only makes of 12% of the state's total human inhabitants - the lack of complaints does not mean that anyone 'over-blows the situation'; in reality, it means that the situation is horribly worse than the tiny number of complaints that one person files.
The operational question the bureaucrats should be addressing themselves to is, "why aren't there more complaints?" They don't because the reality is, if they did address that question, they would actually have to work for their paychecks, and that is not what the welfare system - of which they are a part - is all about. I can see you nodding your heads.
In most states, there are complaint forms available for download from the state's official web site. Or, you can have the forms faxed or mailed to you; and in some cases, if you can't download the forms, you can contact the state agency and they will send them to you as attachments to an email. The fact that matters is, there are many ways to get those complaint forms to you so you can fill them out.
Here is an important tip about making a complaint - You need to file "timely". That means, within a certain length of time from the last date of whatever you are complaining about. This length of time varies from state to state, so don't waste time filing your complaint, if you want to be heard!
Come to think of it - that's another reason to complain.. If you don't speak up, you CAN'T be heard! It should be obviously self-evident, but it isn't....No one can do it for you - you're 18 or over; you're legally an adult. You CAN have someone help you fill out a complaint, though.. People are 'forever' finding me and asking me to help them fill out complaints to someone, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.. Ask your local reference librarian(s) if they know of anyone who can help you. Reference librarians are wizards at finding all sorts of things!
Type if at all possible.. Spelling doesn't count completely, but a spelling checker exists for every word processing program.. It is a good idea to type your complaint in a word-processing program, rather than directly into the form, whenever possible, too. Save it to a disc of some kind, then "copy and paste" into the form.
Your Department of Labor will almost certainly ask you if you have tried to resolve the problem with the company before coming to it, but sometimes that just doesn't work. I'm in the middle of one of those right now. The local branch's manager yelled at me, "You can't go to the Department of Labor! That's the LAST place you should go! That's just not allowed!"
WRONG, lady! That's WHY they exist. (And by the way, who do you think you are to tell me I'm not allowed to complain about your sexist / racist / age-ist AND retaliatory behavior? Hmmm? HAH!)
And then.. if your state's Department of Labor messes up in spades and can't see blatant racism, for example, even when you put it under their nose like a fresh wet furball, there's always finding an attorney who specializes in labor complaints and going to court if you believe your case is strong enough.
Just remember, the protocol is generally that you are required to make an effort to get the situation resolved - absolutely always "in writing" - at the company level first; then the state; and courts are last. Courts don't pay any attention to 'he said, she said'. They want to see everything in black on white. The proceedings are called 'hearings' from the long ago days when most people could not read or write. That's not the case today. Best of luck!
