Practice of Misclassification Places Workers at Risk

Texas work injury attorneys have always been aware of the practice of misclassifying employees as independent contractors to save on costs.  However, as the Associated Press is reporting, such unscrupulous practices have become even more popular in a recession. 

Employers in Texas and around the country are trying to cuts costs on payroll, and have been wrongly classifying more and more workers as independent contractors.  Unfortunately, very often workers are not even aware of the misclassification. When they are injured, they are shocked to find that  they are not covered by Texas Workers' Compensation laws, because he has been classified as a contractor.

According to estimates, a business that engages in such dubious misclassification can save as much as 20 percent of payroll costs by such means.  In difficult financial times, such practices have become widespread, placing the lives and safety of workers at risk.  The Internal Revenue Service is now cracking down hard on such companies.  

The Associated Press is reporting on the case of one particular worker, a native of Panama who suffered injuries in a scaffolding accident..  He spoke very little English, and had signed contract papers issued to him by his company. When he called his company about meeting his treatment expenses, he was told bluntly that the company had no responsibilities towards him, because he was a contractor and not a worker. Needless to say, that was the very first time that the worker heard about this misrepresentation.

Many of these workers who find themselves in such situations are low income workers with little education, and very often, little knowledge of their  employment status under the law. With the federal government taking a dim view of this situation and cracking down harder on such violators, hopefully the situation for such misclassified workers will change.

The Texas work injury lawyers at SMSH represent injured victims of refinery explosions, chemical exposure, toxic gas leaks, construction accidents  and other industrial accidents around the state of Texas.