Labor Day & Maine missing out on millions —-

MAINE MISSING OUT ON MILLIONS – ENHANCED EFFORT TO END WORKER MISCLASSIFCATION

(Sept. 6, 2010)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PORTLAND, ME – The Maine State Building and Construction Trades Council (MSBCTC) will hold a press conference to describe ongoing efforts to identify and eliminate worker misclassification in Maine.  Maine Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman will speak at the event following the Southern Maine Labor Council’s annual Labor Day Breakfast at the Maine Irish Heritage Center (34 Gray Street, Portland).  The press conference will begin at 11:30 a.m. on the magnificent front steps of the historic converted cathedral.

Worker Misclassification occurs when an employee is improperly classified as an independent contractor.  

“This is another step in the right direction, for too long people have been hurt by working under the table in the construction industry. When it comes to publicly funded projects we need to make sure that all laws are being followed. Each year Maine loses out on significant amounts of uncollected revenue. For the worker, the problems are significant often they are underpaid, they have no health insurance or workers compensation. When misclassified workers are injured on the job – in many cases they end up in the emergency room because they have no choice and that means Mainers again foot the bill with increased insurance costs. When misclassified workers show up to collect unemployment or workers comp they do not have any benefits to collect. Maine taxpayers and Maine workers lose when employees are misclassified.” said John Napolitano, president of the Maine State Building and Construction Trades Council.

Maine’s construction unions and organized labor in general have long advocated for more aggressive action against violations of labor and employment law, particularly the misclassification of employees as independent contractors.  In January of 2009, Governor John Baldacci created the Governor’s Joint Task Force on Employee Misclassification.  Since that time, the Department of Labor and other state agencies have met regularly to highlight the issue of worker misclassification.    In conjunction with the Governor’s task force, L.D. 1565 was passed this past April, which authorized the issuance of a “Stop-Work Order” on a job site where worker misclassification is found.

MSBCTC has reinforced these governmental efforts through legislative testimony, by providing examples and personal stories of misclassification, distributing misclassification “Tip Forms” to its members to facilitate enforcement, and helping to educate employers regarding compliance with employment laws.  Maine’s labor unions and other workers’ organizations will continue to shed light on this growing problem within construction and other industries, and to further collaborate with state agencies in the enforcement of laws protecting Maine workers.

LINKS TO PERTINENT INFORMATION

CORNELL STUDY http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=reports

HARVARD STUDY

http://www.maine.gov/search?q=cache:buicuHRv7z4J:www.maine.gov/labor/labor_laws/publications/misclass.doc+medical&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

MSBCTC FACEBOOK PAGE

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Maine-State-Building-and-Construction-Trades-Council

 FOR ALL MEDIA INQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT CANNEY COMMUNICATIONS

 Crystal Canney                                207-615-5968                                   crystal@canneycomm.com

Will McClaran                                   207-841-3628                                   will@canneycomm.com

This entry was posted on Monday, September 6th, 2010 at 2:14 pm by Crystal Canney and is filed under Blogs & News Links. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.