Yesterday the NY governor’s office announced that Governor David A. Paterson has acted on 92 bills, signing 66 into law including the Construction Industry Fair Play Act, which specifies how to determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. The new law also defines which group within a construction project is responsible for which workers. Most importantly, worker misclassification on construction projects may incur financial and criminal penalties.
In talking about the practice of employee misclassification, Governor Paterson said:
"It deprives the government of tax revenue at a time when it is sorely needed and places an unfair burden on law-abiding employers who play by the rules. It often deprives New York's workers of crucial benefits such as overtime pay, workers' compensation and unemployment insurance. This new law will be a powerful tool that hopefully will clean up this practice once and for all."
This is part of the movement we have been talking about to eradicate worker misclassification and level the playing field for responsible employers.
Construction Citizen would like to thank Wikimedia Commons for providing the above photograph of the New York Capitol building.
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