The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "employment agencies" ...
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Moonlight Patrol
After a grueling odyssey through the Pennslyvania courts, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and the Associated Press obtained heavily redacted copies of 1,038 supplemental employment forms filed over the previous six and a half years by state troopers and the agency's civilian employees. Despite assurances to the contrary, the Trib uncovered numerous violations of statute and state regulations regarding the after-hours employment of the police.
Tags: employment; police; after hours; pittsburgh police
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Reality Check: Where are the jobs?
As Indiana's unemployment rate soared, WTHR exposed how state leaders inflated official job statistics through a quasi-state agency shrouded in secrecy. Indiana's Economic Development Corporation claimed it had created 100,00 news jobs and billions of dollars in economic development deals for the state. When called upon to back up their numbers, the agency refused to grant detailed job information under the state's Access to Public Records Law.
Tags: employment; government; Economic Development Corporation; unemployment; jobs
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Nobody's Hero
This is an investigation into the Defense Department agency Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) and its unreliability in helping returned servicemen and women reclaim their jobs upon return from deployment in the Middle East. Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 560,000 National Guard members and reservists have been deployed to the Middle East, "the largest mobilization of citizen-soldiers since World War II." But thousands of the more than 460,000 who have returned home after completing their service are finding that employers are reluctant to allow them to return to work. The reservists can seek help from federal agencies including the Departments of Labor, Justice, Defense and the Office of Special Counsel, but the "military brass strongly encourages the rank and file" to ask the ESGR for assistance. Yet ESGR is disorganized and does not always give helpful advice.
Tags: Military Reservists; Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve; formed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act; disenfranchised veterans; veterans' issues; nobody's hero
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Sold in the U.S.A.
An employment agency in Chicago is helping recruit Mexicans to jobs in Chinese restaurants, where they are promised "housing, food, transportation and overtime." But these places more often are havens for worker abuse as the employees are locked in rooms at night and not allowed to leave after working 12-hour shifts. Using the story of Argentine Ricardo Vaisaga's abuse at Szechwan Garden in Greenwood, Ind. as a springboard, the Chicago reporter examines this issue.
Tags: Human trafficking; employment agencies; workers' rights; Chinese restaurants; worker mistreatment; worker abuse
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Betrayed
A former health inspector and environmental health specialist is now permanently disabled because of his exposure to toxic mold at his workplace, the Southern Nevada Health District's Environmental Health Wing, and he's not the only worker affected. Although his employer knew the problem existed (and was serious, as they are the agency that investigates and shuts down mold-infected sites) they fought correcting the situation, refused to re-locate infected workers, and contested their disability claims.
Tags: Mold; Air quality; Southern Nevada Health District; Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies at UNLV; rashes; Keck School of Medicine Environmental Sciences Laboratory at USC; Public Employees Retirement System of Nevada; U.S. Department of Labor Family and Medical Leave Act; Dan Pauluk; Apergillus; Stachybotrys; Yellow Rain; Aflatoxin; Saddam Hussein; Biological Weapons
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Changes eyed for federal anti-bias system. EEOC riding herd on agencies. Battling delay, dismissals in bias cases.
This article talks about people's problems and complaints about the EEOC (equal opportunity employment commission).
Tags: EEOC; equal opportunity employment commission; employment; jobs; complaints; courts; law; justice; lawyers
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Cheap Tricks
Young investigates the so-called "premium fraud." The story reports that many employers buy no workers comp insurance policies or buy policies but lower the cost of their premiums. As a result, when an accident occurs, state government, taxpayers and patients themselves pay the mounting medical bills. "To make matter worse, states often have multiple agencies and departments overseeing different parts of the workers comp system."
Tags: Uninsured Employers Fund; occupational safety; health care; fraud; insurance
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Jobs that go bump
Governing exposes chaos and inefficiency in the work of government agencies, resulting from bumping - "the process whereby a more senior public employee whose position is cut can use his tenure to claim another job held by a less senior person." The story reveals that often after several senior positions have been cut, dozens and even hundreds of workers might have to change places, ending up "in a similar job, a job they haven't done for years, or a job they have never done in their lives." The reporter looks at better working alternatives to bumping, which have been used by some local governments throughout the country.
Tags: Massachusetts Employment and Training Division; personnel; politics; unions; public employees; collective bargaining; Prince George's County
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Kin, pals fill commission jobs
"Civil Service Commission Executive Director Paul G. Torres for years has doled out thousands of tax dollars in part-time jobs to his relatives, friends and longtime associates. For instance, Torres' two children -- Natalie, 17, and JonPaul, 15 - have been paid to administer the city's police and fire department entrance exams since they were 13 years old, payment records obtained by The Post show." Torres' response: "My kids made crumbs and you think it's a story? I don't understand the twist on this. Because I was keeping them out of trouble and they made a couple of dollars, is that a story?"
Tags: conflict of interest; hiring practices; nepotistm; cronyism; employment; job market; temporary work; contract; test proctors; family employment agency
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Public Records, Private Rules
"The project tested access to public records and compliance with Kansas Open Records Act in all 105 Kansas Counties. Requested were county commission minutes, city bills approved for payments, high school coaches' total compensation and standard offense reports from county sheriffs. Of 420 requests, 35 were denied outright. About a third of the denials were by sheriff's offices. Eight percent of all requests were partially filled; for example, visitors were allowed to look at a document but not copy it, or were given salary numbers on a Post-It note instead of the document describing the salary's structure. But more than half of all agencies pressed their visitors for information on their employers and their reason for requesting the document - information not required by law. Visitors to sheriff's offices were generally greeted with suspicion, and occasionally with hostility. "