Monday, December 16, 2013

Workers robbed by payroll fraud

Payroll fraud is an epidemic costing workers and governments billions of dollars, according to a New York Times op-ed published yesterday.

'Payroll fraud' is another term for 'misclassification,' about which the Teamsters have a lot of painful experience. The op-ed, though, has a great example: Tom Anderson, a Michigan construction worker, was an employee for six years until his employer suddenly told him he was an independent contractor.

Nothing changed, except he lost workers’ compensation, overtime pay, his employers' Social Security contribution and unemployment insurance. He might have even earned less than minimum wage.

Read the whole thing here.