Legislative Advisory: 

Package of Legislation Seeking to Address the Misclassification of Independent Contractors Posted in the Senate Labor Committee for this Thursday (12/5/19)

The Senate Labor Committee will meet this Thursday, December 5, 2019, at 10:00 a.m. in Committee Room 6 to consider a package of seven bills seeking to reform the broken system by which certain employers intentionally misclassify their employees as independent contractors.

The New Jersey State AFL-CIO respectfully urges all affiliates concerned with this issue to attend the meeting and testify in support of these bills.   The New Jersey State AFL-CIO supports all the bills listed below. The same bills have already been released from the Assembly Labor Committee.  Specifically, the bills are:  

S-4204 (Sweeney): This bill has been recommitted to Committee for the purpose of amendments.  It was first released from committee on November 14, 2019. Similar to recently enacted AB-5 in California, the bill seeks to apply the “ABC test” to almost all industries in the state to determine if workers are employees or independent contractors.  New Jersey loses millions of dollars every year in state income tax, unemployment insurance contributions and other revenues due to the “misclassification” of workers.  The New Jersey State AFL-CIO strongly supports the bill which is a “win-win” for workers and the state. 

S-4229 (Madden): This bill permits the Commissioner of Labor to issue a stop-work order against any employer who is in violation of any state wage, benefit and tax laws, including the misclassification of workers.

S-4228 (Lagana / Madden): This bill permits the Division of Taxation to share with the Department of Labor tax statements, reports, audit files, returns, or reports of any investigation so they can better coordinate enforcement of misclassification and other laws.

S-4230 (Madden): Establishes monetary penalties for the misclassification of employees.

S-4225 (Greenstein / Madden): This bill establishes joint liability by making any client employer and any labor contractor providing workers to the client employer subject to joint and several liability and shared civil legal responsibility for any violations of state employer tax laws, including provisions concerning the misclassification of workers.

S-4226 (Madden): Permits the public posting or listing of persons that violate wage, benefit and tax laws.

S-4227 Lagana / Greenstein): Requires employers to post notice to employees regarding the misclassification of workers.

The New Jersey State AFL-CIO thanks Chairman Madden for posting these bills and the sponsors for their leadership on this important issue.