Under the New York State Construction Industry Fair Play Act, effective October 26, construction workers are presumed to be employees, and must be treated as employees, as opposed to independent contractors, unless they meet three criteria. The new section to the New York Labor Law takes aim at worker misclassification in the construction industry. After signing the legislation, Governor David Paterson said, “Studies have shown that up to 15 percent of New York’s construction industry is misclassified at any given time. It deprives the government of tax revenue at a time when it is sorely needed and places an unfair burden on law-abiding employers who play by the rules. It often deprives New York’s workers of crucial benefits such as overtime pay, workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance. This new law will be a powerful tool that hopefully will clean up this practice once and for all.”
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