Opinion: Reading the act as a whole--it appears to be the clear intent of the legislature to regulate as employment agencies those persons who engage in such business for a fee to be exacted from the applicant. (Rendered August 25, 1917.)

3. One employment agency license may be issued to several persons and to nonresidents of California.

Question: (1) May an employment agency license be issued to a partnership, copartnership or corporation?

(2) May an employment agency license be issued to a nonresident of the state or to a foreign corporation?

Opinion: (1) Where a partnership applies for a license to conduct an employment agency and the statutory requirements are complied with, the Commissioner of Labor is authorized, if he approves of the application and the bond, to issue a license to conduct such agency, and it is my opinion that under such circumstances it is proper that the license be issued, for instance in the name of John Doe and Richard Roe, copartners, doing business under the firm name and style of Doe & Roe. In such event, neither of the partners would be licensed to carry on the business of an employment agency individually, and if either of the partners should desire to engage in the business of procuring employment for persons, not as a partner, but as an individual and independently of the partnership, it would be necessary, of course, that he first obtain an individual license.

(2) In the absence of provision to the contrary, I am of the opinion that a license may legally issue to a foreign corporation if it meets the statutory requirements to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of Labor, for a corporation is expressly declared in section 1 of the act to be a "person" subject to license. In such case it would seem that the license should be issued in the name of the corporation and such license would entitle the designated agent of the corporation in this state to carry on the business of an employment agency on behalf of the corporation. (Rendered February 12, 1918.)

4. Orders on employers for unearned wages or salaries are invalid. Question: Several employment agencies have the following paragraph included in the agreements which applicants for employment are required to sign upon accepting a position :

and said

"This agreement shall constitute an order on my employers
for any commission that may be due said____.
employer is hereby requested to pay such amount to said
and charge the same against my salary."

Do agreements including such paragraphs come within the provisions of section 955 of the Civil Code of this state?

Opinion: Such agreements are assignments or orders for wages or salaries prior to the same having been earned and as such it is not valid under that portion of section 955, which reads as follows:

"No assignment of, or order for, wages or salary shall be valid unless at the time of the making thereof, such wages or salary have been earned, except for the necessities of life and then only to the person or persons furnishing such necessities of life directly and then only for the amount needed to furnish such necessities." (Rendered June 10, 1922.)

5. Employment agencies may charge fees for positions actually sold to applicants.

Question: May the Labor Commissioner disapprove contracts between employment agents and applicants for employment which contain the following provisions?

First That if a temporary position develops into a permanent position, either immediately or at some future time, the applicant agrees to pay the full permanent fee, after deducting therefrom the amount paid on a temporary basis.

Second: That if the applicant secures a position of another nature at higher salary he must pay additional fee. For instance, a man who is both a bookkeeper and a clerk is placed in a position as a clerk. Thirty days later the bookkeeper for the firm quits and the applicant who was placed as a clerk is given his position as bookkeeper at a higher rate of pay.

Third: That the applicant waives exemption from execution or attachment in case suit is brought to collect the employment agency fee.

Opinion: First, under sections 11, 12, and 19 of the Employment Agency Act it is not within the power of employment agencies to enter into the character of contract which would obligate the applicant to pay a fee for a full time position when he was first sold a temporary position.

Second: The act certainly does not contemplate that forever after a position is secured for the applicant by employment agency, this agency may follow and enjoy increased income received by the applicant by reason of his intelligent attention to his duties.

Third: The Supreme Court of this state in the case of Industrial Loan and Investment Co. vs. Superior Court of California, reported in 189 Cal. 546, declares such an agreement on the part of applicant to waive in advance his rights to exemption from attachment or execution would be a void contract. (Rendered December 20, 1924.)

6. Nurses' Registries who are members of the California State Nurses' Association do not come within the purview of the Employment Agency Act.

Question: Are the official nurses' registries of the California State Nurses' Association employment agencies within the meaning of section 1 of the Employment Agency Act?

Opinion: My understanding is that the nurses' registries to which you refer are conducted by the different branches of the California State Nurses' Association, a corporation organized for the benefit of professional nurses and not for financial profit. These organizations are very much the same character as would be similar organizations of physicians, and attorneys, and are also comparable to labor union organizations. So long as they limit their activities to their own membership and do not hold themselves out publicly as employment agencies it would appear that they do not come within the scope of the Employment Agency Act of this State. (Rendered February 20, 1926.)