WHEREAS, worker misclassification is a deceptive effort by bad-acting employers to purposely identify workers as independent contractors to avoid paying employee-related expenses such as unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation; and

WHEREAS, misclassified workers are robbed of basic workplace protections under federal and state law which have protected employees for more than a century, including the National Labor Relations Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act; and

WHEREAS, misclassified workers are often denied healthcare benefits and retirement benefits from their bad-acting employers; and

WHEREAS, by this unlawful activity, bad-acting employers save nearly 30% on worker-related expenses due to misclassification, forcing employers who play by the rules to compete at a disadvantage; and

WHEREAS, federal and state governments lose billions of dollars annually due to this egregious practice. The federal government loses nearly $4.7 billion annually while 15 states which compiled dollar amounts fixed to worker misclassification lose more than $3.2 billion collectively each year; and

WHEREAS, worker misclassification fundamentally challenges much-needed protections for workers and compromises state government; and

WHEREAS, the rapid rise of app-based on-demand services has been made possible by exploitation of workers through the weak enforcement and application of misclassification laws; and

WHEREAS, statistics suggest this practice increasing in frequency, forcing  federal and state governments to take unprecedented steps to crack down on bad- acting employers.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED at this 29th International Convention that the federal and state governments should take all necessary steps to eliminate this egregious practice under wage-and-hour, fair labor standards, workers’ compensation, and unemployment insurance laws.

BE IT FURTHERED RESOLVED that states adopt the “ABC” test to consider employee versus independent contractor for all future decisions on employee status.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the IBT will convene a misclassification taskforce to discuss strategies as they impact Teamster core industries.

FINALLY, BE IT RESOLVED that strong financial penalties should be enacted to recoup lost revenues to the federal and state governments while discouraging other bad-acting employers from using this egregious practice.