Crime & Law
Ferrara Candy Didn’t Properly Educate Temp Workers on Hazards of Job, Lawsuit Says
A file photo of Ferrara Candy’s Forest Park facility in March 2023. (WTTW)
Anybody with a sweet tooth has likely sampled some of Ferrara Candy’s wares, including iconic treats like Jelly Belly, Lemonhead and Nerds.
But a lawsuit filed by a worker advocacy organization says the Chicago-based company violated state regulations aimed at protecting temp workers while on the job and ensuring they understand the potential risks they face when taking on an assignment.
The suit, brought by the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative after receiving complaints about Ferrara from temp workers last year and this year, says the company did not provide information to staffing agencies it contracted about the “anticipated job hazards likely encountered by the temporary laborers before the laborers are assigned” or “provide specific training to temporary staffing agency workers assigned to Ferrara tailored to the particular hazards at the Ferrara worksite, including when job assignments changed.”
“Temp workers are injured at a much higher rate than direct hire workers because they don’t get training,” said Chris Williams, a workers’ rights attorney who brought the case on behalf of the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative.
Williams pointed to the 2022 death of a 29-year-old temp worker at the Gurnee facility of Miracapo Pizza Company.
“A couple of staffing agency workers were told to go clean a machine while it was running,” Williams said. “They had no idea how it ran, and one of them was killed as a result, and had received no training on that whatsoever.”
That death prompted $2.8 million in penalties after an Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation found the woman was using compressed air to clean a conveyer and was killed when her head got caught in machinery.
Another temp worker of Crest Hill pizza manufacturer Rich Products was killed in 2021, also while cleaning machinery, prompting $145,000 in penalties after an OSHA investigation.
The lawsuit against Ferrara also names the staffing agencies PeopleShare and Multi-Temps, saying they too failed to provide temp workers adequate information about a potential assignment, to make sure workers knew where to report health and safety concerns and to ensure the workers placed at Ferrara weren’t exposed to hazardous conditions.
The Ferrara lawsuit came after a Chicago Workers’ Collaborative complaint to the Illinois Department of Labor. The department did not make any determination on the merits of the complaint and granted the workers’ rights group the right to sue under a recent provision of state law allowing so-called “interested parties” to intervene on behalf of workers.
“The task of regulating the temporary staffing industry is just huge,” Williams said. “While the department does an excellent job with the resources it has, it just simply doesn’t have enough resources to do it. This provides the means for labor unions, for worker centers, other organizations with a history of protecting workers’ rights to step in and fill some of that gap.”
It’s not the first time Ferrara has faced accusations over treatment of its temp workers. In 2016, the candy company and two other staffing agencies agreed to settle a lawsuit claiming that Black workers were discriminated against for placement in favor of Latino workers. Ferrara and the agencies paid a total of $1.5 million and admitted no wrongdoing.
“We do not have any comment on this case,” a representative of PeopleShare told WTTW News. “The safety and well-being of all individuals working through PeopleShare is our top priority.”
“This lawsuit has no merit and Ferrara denies its allegations,” a Ferrara spokesperson told WTTW News in a statement. “Ferrara provides safe working conditions in all our facilities, complies with all safety training requirements, and provides safety training to all temporary and full-time workers.”
The statement also claims the Chicago Workers’ Collaborative is only “purporting” to represent temporary staffers, despite the workers’ group stating in its motion it acted after multiple people contacted the organization with complaints.
An employee of Multi-Temps said her boss was unavailable for immediate comment.
Note: This story has been updated to include a comment from Ferrara Candy.
Contact Nick Blumberg: [email protected] | (773) 509-5434 | @ndblumberg
