Two Commissions Give Support to Pilot Program Aimed at Organizing Day Laborers

Two local groups have thrown their support behind a plan to form an association of day laborers in the city.

The Housing and Human Affairs Committee voted Thursday to recommend that the City Council allocate $7,500 for a pilot program that would help organize the workers who congregate daily at a hiring lot on Laguna Canyon Road.

Also Thursday, the Cross Cultural Council, which works to form bonds between diverse groups across the city, agreed to administer the funds if the council makes the allocation.

The program is the brainchild of resident Patrick O’Flanagan, who began giving informal English lessons to the workers last year and became concerned about their situation.

O’Flanagan maintains that the laborers would get more jobs if they behaved in an orderly fashion, rather than swarming every car that pulls into the lot. After workers asked for his help, O’Flanagan said, he suggested that they form an association and adopt rules of conduct.

For example, the workers would agree to take numbers when they arrive at the site and allow a monitor to call them in order. They would wear photo identification badges, which the city’s Police Department has already agreed to laminate.

Potential employers would be given contracts stating when and how the workers would be paid.

The hitch is finding a way to pay the monitors, who would otherwise lose pay when it is their turn to perform that duty. O’Flanagan estimated the cost would be $7,500 for a three-month pilot program.

He asked the City Council for financial support but was advised that the Housing and Human Affairs Committee would have the first word in the matter. That organization unanimously endorsed the pilot program, Chairwoman Alice Graves said.

“I believe that it’s a step in the right direction,” she said. “It will benefit the workers, as well as people who need temporary help.”