Workers who are misclassified as independent contractors in New York are getting the help they deserve. Governor Eliot Spitzer announced a new Executive Order today aimed at preventing employee misclassification. The order creates a Joint Enforcement Task Force that will work to strengthen enforcement. Change to Win Executive Director Greg Tarpinian joined Governor Spitzer at the announcement.
Employers misclassify their workers to avoid complying with workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance and disability insurance laws, to skirt social security taxes and to get around paying for retirement and health benefits. Employees who are misclassified are not covered under minimum wage and prevailing wage laws, have no right to overtime or rest periods, and have no right to join a union.
“Misclassification of workers is theft. Outlaw employers steal compensation from workers, security from their families and taxes from their communities," said Tarpinian. "Law-abiding employers suffer unfair competition, and the economic standards that support the American dream for workers are threatened. All the Change to Win unions thank Governor Spitzer for his leadership in holding employers accountable.”
“For too long State government has turned a blind eye on a growing epidemic that is keeping wages and benefits artificially low for working New Yorkers,” said Governor Spitzer. “This Executive Order – a key component of my economic security agenda – protects worker rights while leveling the playing field for law abiding employers so they are not at a competitive disadvantage to employers who refuse to play by the rules as they exploit hard working New Yorkers.”
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Learn more about employee misclassification.
UPDATE (Sep. 21, 2007): Now with video!
Comments (1)
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I have been an independent contractor for four years now. I was laid off from my first contract position, which I had held for two years, a few months after the birth of my son. I found another contract position with a global multi-billion dollar company. I have no benefits, no sick time, vacation, or holiday pay. If I don't work, I don't get paid. I understand that; I have come to accept it as a trade-off for the luxury of being able to work at home and raise my son.
But this company has adopted a policy of allowing its contract employees to work for only one year, after which they must take a forced three-month hiatus (unemployment) and work one more year - then we can no longer work for them. This prevents any contract employee from trying to say they deserve benefits. I am in the middle of my second year of work, and will find myself again unemployed next summer. There will be no position I can return to after a three-month hiatus, though.
I wish that companies were not allowed to have a revolving door for contract employees to avoid paying benefits. I'm lucky enough to enjoy the benefits from my husband's job. But the constant uncertainty of my own employment - due to the "safeguards" these companies take to avoid paying people benefits - makes it hard to do what the experts say is best for children, and what I would like to do, which is to stay home and raise my son until he is ready to start school. With a mortgage, rising gas costs, and the subsequent rise in prices of goods and services across the board, it's impossible for my family to live on just my husband's income. I need to work, and I don't mind working as an independent contractor, but I hate the fact that that means I have no job protection.
Posted by Christina on September 14, 2007 at 8:34 PM
Posted on September 14, 2007 at 8:34 PM