Please sign this online petition urging Governor McAuliffe and Secretary of Commerce Todd Haymore to crack down on wage theft by making the state’s Misclassification Taskforce function as it was designed.
In 2014, the Governor created a Misclassification Taskforce by Executive Order to get the various government agencies sharing data about employers that misclassify workers and working together to crack down on this serious form of wage theft. The taskforce met a few times in 2015 but did nothing but talk. It didn’t even meet in 2016. The Secretary of Commerce is in charge of the taskforce, but it clearly is not a priority for him.
Many states have used Misclassification Taskforces to serious address wage theft. Not Virginia. This is a huge missed opportunity to crack down on wage theft and recover money for the state.
Misclassifying workers is when employers call workers independent contractors when they are really employees. This means employers don’t pay the employer side of payroll taxes (forcing workers to pay double taxes), unemployment, workers comp, and overtime. Workers are exempted from a whole set of important labor protections. Although there may be some employers who are confused about the law, many employers, especially in construction, have found that they can break the law with few consequences and thus have made misclassifying employees part of their business model.
According to the 2012 Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) report entitled Review of Employee Misclassification in Virginia, “A Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) audit of one percent of Virginia employers found 5,639 workers were misclassified in 2010. Based on findings in other states, Virginia could have on the order of 40,000 misclassifying employers and 214,000 misclassified workers.” According to the report, the state could be losing $28 million in revenue because of not cracking down on misclassification.
Governor McAuliffe and Secretary Haymore must stop wage theft by getting this Misclassification Taskforce functioning. The Taskforce should immediately:
• Figure out how to share data between government agencies.
• Conduct a pilot program to crack down on egregious violators of the law.
• Develop a detailed plan for strengthening enforcement against misclassification.
Please sign here, by Dec. 31, 2016 if at all possible: https://virginiainterfaithcenter.ourpowerbase.net/…/p…/sign…
Thank you so much.
Kim Bobo, Executive Director
