News Archives
July 13, 2007
Legislation Criminalizing the Misclassification of Construction Workers Signed into Law
On July 13, 2007 Governor Corzine signed into law A-4009 (Caraballo / Karcher), which debars certain employers from public work and establishes criminal penalties for the misclassification of construction workers as independent contractors. The bill passed the Senate on June 18, 2007 by a vote of 24-12-4. Voting in favor were all Democrats present, as well as Republicans Lance, Asselta and McCullough. The bill passed the Assembly on June 11, 2007 by a vote of 55-22-3. Voting in favor were all Democrats and Republicans Baroni, Chatzidakis, Dancer, Kean and Malone.
The New Jersey State AFL-CIO and the building and construction trade unions lobbied in support of this bill for almost two years. The law is a "win-win" for workers, responsible employers as well as the State and Federal Government in regard to fairly and accurately collecting various revenues. The bill "levels the playing field" for responsible contractors because the industry will not be hindered by certain firms receiving an unfair advantage by cheating workers, taxpayers and the government. Unfortunately taxpayers of the state are currently being forced to make up for these lost government revenues that irresponsible contractors are profiting from.
The current abuse that is occurring by some unscrupulous employers misclassifying independent contractors is illegal and constitutes tax and insurance fraud. This is a serious problem that is grand in scope and sacrifices hundreds of millions of dollars annually in state and federal revenues. This law will well serve the taxpayers of New Jersey.
The New Jersey State AFL-CIO thanks Governor Corzine, the bill’s sponsors, Senate President Codey and Speaker Roberts for posting the bills for consideration, and all those legislators that voted in favor of this pro-worker, pro-taxpayer legislation.