I know what gate agents do, I've been one before. Surprisingly, by doing my job correctly, I was able to handle all of these tasks, including often tidying up the aircraft cabin myself before boarding, upgrading eligible customers properly to the letter of our policy, and even boarding people in the correct priority without allowing line jumpers, pushers, or those boarding in the wrong group. In the end, my flights all left on time, except when there was a maintenance issues, or I was blessed by yet another visit from the local family of lunatics who would often plunk themselves down in first class demanding to sit there, until I needed to call the police to remove them.

It's actually not that difficult at all - and it's even less difficult to follow published standards and policies, none of which should be alien to even contract agents at an outstation who should be properly trained, managed and supervised.

The agents involved should be re-trained, and if they push back on these policies or fail to follow them to the letter, terminated immediately on their next offense.