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Following in the footsteps of last year’s California Supreme Court’s Dynamex decision regarding misclassification of employees, the New Jersey Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Labor have joined in an agreement to help protect workers such as truck drivers and Uber drivers from being treated as independent contractors and denied full employee benefits.
The agreement has made New Jersey a “misclassification battlefront,” according to Greg Feary, a partner with the law firm of Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary, P.C., lawyers representing the transportation industry.
“It’s political and union-inspired. The misclassification issue tends to be a blue state-red state issue. New Jersey, along with California, Washington and Illinois are examples of blue states that are being very aggressive on the issue of misclassification, and trucking is among the top industries they’re looking at. Whether you want to be an independent contractor or not, the state has said we’re going to extend the social welfare umbrella over to protect you,” said Feary.
The joint agreement is a result of a report commissioned by first-term New Jersey Democratic Governor Phil Murphy which found that 12,315 workers were misclassified with $462 million in wages underreported as well as $14 million in unemployment, disability, and family leave insurance. The report also said that up to 30% of employers misclassify at least one employee as an independent contractor.
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Phil Murphy NJ Governor