New Employee Rights Law Pending in Congress

  

  

 delicious  

  

A new employee rights law was recently submitted to Congress by Senator Sherrod Brown from Ohio.  The Employee Misclassification Prevention Act is intended to protect workers who are misclassified as independent contractors.   It is estimated that tens of thousands of employers routinely misclassify their employees as independent contractors.  

Employees who are misclassified as independent contractors lose critical workplace protections and employee benefits such as overtime pay, minumum wage, unemployment insurance, health and saftey protections and workers compensation.  

The EMPA would reduce the number of misclassification violations by:

•    Ensuring that employers keep records that reflect the accurate status of each worker as an employee or non-employee and clarifying that employers violate the Fair Labor Standards Act when they misclassify workers.
•    Increasing penalties on employers who misclassify their employees and are found to have violated employees' overtime or minimum wage rights.
•    Requiring employers to notify workers of their classification as an employee or non-employee
•    Creating an "employee rights web site" to inform workers about their federal and state wage and hour rights.
•    Providing protections to workers who are discriminated against because they have sought to be accurately classified.

For more information on the EMPA, please the post by the Overtime Advisor