Contractors Looking for Change in Employment Law

Immigration is considered a federal concern.  However, construction tycoons in Texas are sure that changing employment legislation there can trigger change across the country, according to The Texas Tribune.

Stan Marek is the president and CEO of an interior contracting business that has facilities all over Texas.  He spoke in front of the Texas Workforce Commission regarding an issue in the industry.

He believes companies willfully misidentify workers as subcontractors, also known as “1099” workers, so they don’t have to spend for payroll taxes and worker allowance like overtime.

Marek wants these actions to be against the law.

Unfortunately, politics will play quite a role in this.  Hispanics don’t like the Republicans and support the Democrats.  Therefore, Republicans are once again pondering immigration.

“We have to get an immigration bill, (because) people are being misclassified and most are undocumented,” Marek said. “They aren’t getting workmen’s comp, (they are) getting paid less. They are denied all their rights.”

Also as a result, businesses who are ethical are suffering financially.

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement have boosted their investigations of I-9 forms, the document used nationally to determine employment eligibility.

There is a false notion that if workers will be deported if they are illegally on U.S. soil.  Because of that, a lot of them begin to work for people who will designate them as independent contractors.

The Texas Workforce Commission is expected to meet soon regarding the concern.

In an e-mail, the TWC claims that they are “charged with auditing businesses to ensure that employee wages are being reported and that proper taxes are being paid on those wages.  When TWC determines that an individual who has been classified as an independent contractor is really an employee, then back taxes, penalties and interest are assessed.”

The commission will conduct several steps to boost their awareness of misclassifying employees.  They will deeply examine the number of employees that are audited, the portion of pay altered from the audit, the portion of Texas’ total pay that is altered and the average figure of misidentified employees per audit.

The Hispanic Leadership Network is a conservative group whose members supported a tolerable method for change.  This came after Republicans said it was time to revamp their line of communication.

“It’s a step in the right direction” that after the election, “conservatives are beginning to take the necessary steps toward fixing our broken immigration system,” Jennifer Korn, executive director of the leadership network, said in the statement. “Now is the time for conservative leaders to speak out — and continue speaking out — about the immigration reforms they are for, rather than against. Introduce a guest worker program; overhaul our visa system; truly secure our borders — all of which are conservative policies.”