2 Groups Back Creation of Day Laborer Organization

Two groups have agreed to support a plan to form an association of day laborers in the city.

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

The Cross-Cultural Council, which works to form bonds among diverse cultural groups, unanimously 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 plight.

O’Flanagan maintains that laborers would get more jobs if they behaved in an orderly fashion instead of simply swarming any car that pulls into the lot. After workers asked for his help, O’Flanagan said, he suggested 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 to be hired. Members would wear photo identification badges, which the city’s Police Department has already agreed to laminate.

Also, employers would be handed informal contracts that say 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 of a 3-month pilot program at $7,500.

On Tuesday, 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 Friday.

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

The council may consider the issue at its meeting today.