Misclassification of Employees bill (HF4444/SF4483) Makes Its Way to Floor Vote
Watch Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison at Misclassification Task Force Press Conference >>
Watch NCSRCC General Counsel Burt Johnson testify at Senate Judiciary Committee on March 18 >>
The North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters (NCSRCC) is supporting the Misclassification of Employees Prohibited bill (HF4444/SF4483) making its way through the legislature. This bill comes as a recommendation emerging from the Minnesota Attorney General’s Task Force on Worker Misclassification. It would ensure an effective and efficient approach to misclassification enforcement.
The Minnesota Attorney General’s Misclassification Task Force is comprised of business, labor, employee, independent contractor and academic experts. “We heard multiple days of testimony from workers, employers and regulators that led to one irrefutable conclusion,” recalled NCSRCC General Counsel Burt Johnson who also sits on the Task Force. “Minnesota’s efforts to curb worker misclassification have lacked interdepartmental coordination, a comprehensive strategic approach to specific industries, and the penalties are inadequate to deal with the problem.”
If passed, this bill will create more enforcement tools and increase the severity of penalties against employers who misclassify their employees. Additionally, it will maximize the ability to fight employer misclassification fraud in Minnesota.
Currently, laws do very little to deter misclassification or allow for strong enforcement from the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. This bill addresses those shortcomings, protecting small businesses, and will deter dishonest business owners from trying to cheat the system by ensuring that workers’ rights to overtime, minimum wages, safe workplaces and other employee benefits are protected.
“Workers’ rights in the workplace to be free from discrimination, form a union, be paid overtime, be covered by workers’ compensation when they are injured, have unemployment insurance and retirement security, and to have health care are ALL dependent on the employment relationship. Those are the stakes and that basic level of economic security is what the misclassification bill aims to protect,” said Johnson. “The bill would create an interagency partnership to ensure that all aspects of misclassification are coordinated and will significantly increase penalties for bad actors by the Department of Labor and Industry. This will make it harder for the fly-by-night companies paying workers in cash to disappear while owing workers and the State significant sums of money.”
This legislation has passed all but one committee in the Senate and all committees in the House. We anticipate a floor vote in each legislative body in the coming weeks.
For more information and updates on this bill and more, visit: https://northcountrycarpenter.org/minnesota