I own a small temporary staffing agency in San Jose. I’m also a Latino business owner, and most of the people we place on job sites across the South Bay and the Bay Area are Hispanic—men and women working hard to support their families, often in warehouses, food processing plants, construction sites, and logistics hubs that keep our local economy moving.

I started this business to do things the right way. We pay payroll taxes. We carry legitimate workers’ compensation insurance. We follow labor laws. And we stand behind our workers when something goes wrong.

But too often, we are competing against companies that don’t.

Across Santa Clara County, a growing number of staffing operators are exploiting a massive gap in California law. There is no meaningful statewide system requiring staffing agencies to register, disclose ownership, or demonstrate compliance with basic employment requirements. That lack of oversight has created a shadow market where bad actors thrive.

Here’s how it works.

A company sets up a staffing agency—sometimes here, sometimes out of state. They recruit workers, often from the same Latino communities I serve. They place them with local employers. But behind the scenes, they cut corners or break the law entirely. They don’t carry valid workers’ compensation insurance. They underreport payroll or fail to pay taxes. Sometimes they disappear altogether when problems arise.

On paper, they look like any other staffing company. In reality, they are operating on a completely different set of rules.

And that creates two serious problems.

First, it puts workers at risk. If someone gets injured on the job and there is no real insurance, that worker is left scrambling—facing medical bills, lost wages, and uncertainty about where to turn. I’ve seen it happen. These are not abstract policy issues. These are real people—parents, neighbors—who thought they were protected.

Second, it punishes honest businesses.

Companies like mine cannot compete with agencies that are cutting costs by 30% or more simply by ignoring the law. We lose contracts not because we are less capable, but because we refuse to cheat.

That’s not a level playing field. It’s a race to the bottom.

And the cost doesn’t just hit businesses and workers—it hits taxpayers. When injured workers don’t have proper coverage, they often end up relying on public programs. When payroll taxes aren’t paid, state and federal revenues take a hit. Everyone ends up paying for the actions of a few bad actors.

That’s why California needs to pass SB 1032 (Reyes), the Staffing Agency Fair Employment (SAFE) Act.

This legislation would finally bring basic transparency and accountability to the staffing industry. It would require agencies to register with the state, disclose who actually owns and operates the business, and verify that they are meeting core legal obligations like carrying workers’ compensation insurance.

For legitimate operators, this is not a burden. It’s what we already do. For bad actors, it would make it much harder to hide.

In a region like San Jose—where our economy depends on a flexible workforce and where so many staffing employees are part of the Latino community—this kind of reform is overdue. Workers deserve to know who they are working for. Employers deserve to know their staffing partners are compliant. And small businesses like mine deserve a fair chance to compete.

This isn’t about overregulation. It’s about basic accountability.

If we want to protect workers, support honest businesses, and maintain a fair economy here in the South Bay, we need to close the loopholes that allow fraud to flourish.

SB 1032 does exactly that. It’s time to pass it.