Today on job sites across Minnesota, 1 in 5 construction workers is likely to experience being misclassified as an independent contractor, paid off the books and/or have their wages stolen.
Although we passed an effective law addressing wage theft in 2019, the issue remains prevalent across our industry. Wage theft and construction industry tax fraud hurt workers, hurt law-abiding businesses, and they hurt the community by shortchanging taxes, unemployment insurance, workers compensation and other benefits.
The Construction Worker Wage Protection Act (HF1859) would ensure that workers subjected to wage theft have recourse to collect unpaid wages from contractors. The law would make sure general contractors and project owners hire responsible subcontractors once we place the responsibility for preventing wage theft upon those with the most control over construction labor practices.
Today, general contractors are responsible for safety on the project — or they can be held accountable. General contractors are also responsible for workers’ compensation on their job sites. Similarly, we are asking that wage and hour violations also should be the responsibility of general contractors.
For years, we heard from general contractors and developers that corner cutting by some subcontractors has created a competitive disadvantage for honest businesses. For years we were also asked by the Associated General Contractors — which represents union construction companies — and...
The Southeast National Vice Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Barr. Ray Nnaji said that widespread claims of a leadership crisis in the party stem from misinterpreting recent court r...