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Published on 06/01/1998 All articles from this issue

Employers finding workers at day laborer center

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue

Town Crier Staff Writer

Elizabeth Keller is smiling. Keller, who is director of St. Joseph the Worker Center on El Camino Real in Los Altos, said she has noticed a definite increase in the number of employers who come in to pick up workers.

If the employers come to the center, the workers will wait there, too, instead of hanging out on street corners on El Camino Real.

That's good news, for the city, for the police, and most especially, for the workers.

While workers wait, they can study English taught in ESL classes or take part in any number of courses offered at the center, including family planning, anger management and assertiveness training for women, Keller said.

"We see this as joined with getting a job. This is a job-matching center," Keller said. "But we have a captive audience and while they are here, we can help them improve their lives."

Last week she met with a group of women. One said her boyfriend wanted her to quit taking English. She was unsure what to do.

The group encouraged her.

"So she broke up with the guy and is still taking English," Keller said.

On a good day, as many as 15 employers come in to the center, Keller said. And inside there are 25 to 30 workers, who have been screened, who are ready to work, typically at construction or yard work.

"We've done an interview to find out their skills, educational level and their goals," Keller said.

Then, "Once a worker has gone out, we send out an evaluation form to the employers," she said, "to find out how satisfied they were. And we give the feedback to the workers.

"There are very few complaints, really isolated incidents. Usually the evaluation is great and employers ask for the same person."

For people who want to work inside doing child or elder care or cleaning, "There is more screening," Keller said.

She especially encourages prospective employers looking for an inside worker to come and interview at the center.

"They can interview as many as they want," Keller said. Last fall, one woman who was looking for someone to do child care, "interviewed five different people. She found one who worked out so well that she is still with her."

The Los Altos Police Department also works with the center. A month or so ago "we handed out fliers," said Los Altos Police officer Mark Macaulay, to encourage employers to visit the center for finding workers.

Officers also give fliers to the day laborers they find hanging out. "We tell them, 'just go a couple blocks down and you can get ESL training,'" Macaulay said.

"We're really pleased with the number of employers using the center," said Layne Long, assistant to the Los Altos city manager.

The center is located at 4898 El Camino Real Suite 300, at the corner of Jordan Avenue. For more information, call the center at 962-1902.