Mass. to Expand Its Already Powerful and Effective Wage and Misclassification Task Force

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Six years after Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick created the Joint Task Force on the Underground Economy (JTF) via executive order, the highly successful program will become statute thanks to language in the state’s newly enacted minimum wage law.

Recent reports show that in 2013 alone the JTF recovered $15.6 million in back wages, unemployment insurance premiums, penalties and fines following over one thousand investigations.  Since its inception, the JTF has recovered over $56 million.

Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD) Secretary Rachel Kaprielian said in a statement:

“Companies and individuals who willfully avoid the law by misclassifying employees … or engage in fraudulent employment practices of the underground economy put workers’ safety at risk, place legitimate businesses at a disadvantage and burden taxpayers.”

A new council will take the reigns from the JTF, adding eight agencies to those that have been on board since 2008.  Gov. Patrick is currently in the process of selecting these new agencies.  The new council will be chaired by the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development and will have broadened powers.

  

MASSACHUSETTS RECOVERS MILLIONS IN REVENUE BY REDUCING EMPLOYER FRAUD AND WORKER MISCLASSIFICATION

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BOSTON – Thursday, September 5, 2013 – Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Joanne F. Goldstein today announced Massachusetts has recovered more than $21 million over an 18-month period in owed revenue recaptured through the collaborative work of the state’s Joint Enforcement Task Force on the Underground Economy and Employee Misclassification (the Joint Task Force). This recovered amount is greater than the sum of all previous years combined as detailed in the Joint Task Force’s 2012 Annual Report.

In March 2008, Governor Deval Patrick established the Joint Task Force to restore fairness to the Massachusetts economy by addressing employer fraud and misclassification. Working towards this goal, the Joint Task Force is composed of various state agencies including representatives from the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD), as well as other executive branch agencies, the Office of the Attorney General’s Fair Labor Division, the Office of the Treasurer’s Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission and the Insurance Fraud Bureau.