10/26/17
WorkersCompensation.com
Baton Rouge, LA (WorkersCompensation.com) – It’s a hidden crime with thousands of unsuspecting accomplices, a multi-million dollar payroll, and an unfair business advantage to the bad guys. But a team of state and federal agencies are working together to tell companies that if they misclassify workers, then it is GAME ON.
GAME ON is the acronym for Government Against Misclassified Employees Operational Network, a unique task force found only in Louisiana. Partnering together are the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC)’s Unemployment Insurance and Office of Workers’ Compensation divisions and the Louisiana Department of Revenue, with cooperative agreements with the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour Division.
“We are putting companies on notice that misclassifying workers won’t be tolerated in Louisiana,” said LWC Executive Director Ava Dejoie. “The practice isn’t fair to the unsuspecting workers who are cheated out of critical benefits and protections, and it’s not fair to the thousands of businesses who ‘play by the rules’ but are undercut by companies that intentionally trim labor costs by misclassifying.”
Misclassification refers to a worker who by law is an employee, but is incorrectly classified as something other than an employee. Most misclassifications usually involve workers labeled as independent contractors.
The GAME ON task force has focused efforts on the industries historically known to use independent contractors to a large degree, namely construction, health care, hospitality, personal services and staffing companies.