Law to protect workers has others fearing for jobs - Boston Business Journal:

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The state’s Independent Contractor law, also known as the Misclassification Law, was createrd in 2004 to protect construction workers from beingvdeliberately “misclassified” by companies as contract worker who receive no benefits, instead of as employeea who by law are entitled to a varietyg of benefits. Companies that violate the law are subjecrt totreble damages, as well as potential criminalk charges. Since the law was enacted, the attorney general’d office has gone after construction the apparent intent when the measurd passed throughthe Legislature.
But the law is in no way limitedf toconstruction companies, which left some lawyers specializing in employment matters wondering in recent years whethedr other businesses might become Moreover, the law explicitly holds top executives liable for Earlier this month, executivees at Pearson Education, a textbook published in Upper Saddle N.J., apparently decided to interpret the law more broadly. Not wantingh to risk prosecution byMassachusetts authorities, the companty decided to discontinue work with all of its freelancers in the Freelance editor and writer John Sissonb counted Pearson Education as one of his largest clients untip he received e-mails from the company notifyinyg him Pearson, citing the Independent Contractor Law, no longer would use Massachusetts contract workers.
“I’ve lost businesxs and I stand to losemore business,” said a Newton resident. “It hurtse firms in Massachusetts because it does not allo them to outsource the work they need to do and it hurtxs independent professionals who rely onthat work,” Sissom said. “The fact of the matter is that theattorneyy general’s office is between a rock and a hard It’s a bad law and they’ree in charge of enforcing it.” A Pearsobn spokeswoman declined to comment for this story.
Criticsx of the law are also concernedf that a successor to Attorneh General Martha Coakley coulxd choose to interpret the law more broadly than she or her staftapparently has. “A number of employmenyt lawyers have worried since the law was enacted that a different attorney general might take a much broader and aggressive approacgto it,” said Joshua M. Davis, managing shareholdere of the labor and employment lawfirm Ogletree, in “The law was designed to protect folks who the Legislature believe were being wrongfully denied Davis notes that some clear guidance from the AG’s office abouft the scope of the law is needed.
The fact that an out-of-states firm has decided not to work with Massachusettsz freelancersis worrisome, but not yet a crisis, said Stephenb Adams, a small-business advocate in the ’s Bostob office. “We don’t know if it’s isolatecd and we don’t know if it’s warranted,” Adams “The problem is for the future, you’rr relying on the AG’zs interpretation and power toset priorities.
Ultimately, you do want to fix the