160 | Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2025 ed. © 2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP terminating an employee for filing a written response to a personnel record violates the public policy exception to at-will employment and that an employee could sue for wrongful termination in that circumstance.979 An individual employee also has the right to seek a judicial determination of whether a document qualifies as a “personnel record.”980 B. Temporary Workers Right to Know Law On January 31, 2013, “An Act Establishing a Temporary Workers Right to Know” went into effect in Massachusetts.981 The law requires “staffing agencies” to provide temporary employees with comprehensive, individualized, pre-employment information regarding each new work assignment (“notice requirements”), limits the fees and costs for which staffing agencies and work site employers may charge temporary employees, and requires staffing agencies to reimburse temporary employees sent to work sites where no work is available for the full cost of transportation.982 In December 2014, the DLS issued “Employment Agency and Temporary Workers Right To Know Regulations” to carry out the provisions of the law.983 The regulations define “staffing agencies” subject to the law and distinguish “staffing agencies” from “employment agencies,” which are subject to their own regulations, in the following manner: A “staffing agency” is defined as an individual or company “that procures or provides temporary or part-time employment to an individual who then works under the supervision or direction of a worksite employer.”984 An “employment agency” is defined as a “person, business or entity engaged in the business, or organized for the purpose, of procuring or attempting to procure permanent or temporary help, employment or engagements.” The regulations expressly exclude individuals or companies “employing individuals directly for the purpose of furnishing part time or temporary help” from the definition of an “employment agency.”985 979 See Meehan v. Medical Information Technologies, Inc., 488 Mass. 730 (2021). Under the public policy exception, it is unlawful for an employer to terminate an employee in contravention of a well-defined public policy. In Meehan, the SJC explained that the right of employees to submit a written statement in response to a personnel record is a legally guaranteed right of employment and a matter of public significance. 980 See Kessler v. Cambridge Health Alliance, 62 Mass. App. Ct. 589, 597 (2004). 981 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 159C. 982 Id. 983 454 C.M.R. § 24.00. 984 454 C.M.R. § 24.02. 985 Id. Employment agencies are subject to their own provisions of the regulations. However, an “employment agency” might also be a “staffing agency” subject to the law and the “staffing agency” regulations.
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