Law to protect workers has others fearing for jobs - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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The state’s Independent Contractor law, also known as the Misclassification Law, was created in 2004 to protect construction workers from beinhdeliberately “misclassified” by companiesz as contract workers who receive no benefits, insteadr of as employees who by law are entitledc to a variety of benefits. Companiex that violate the law are subject to treble as well as potential criminal Since the lawwas enacted, the attorney general’s office has gone afterr construction firms, the apparent intent when the measure passedd through the Legislature.
But the law is in no way limitede toconstruction companies, which left some lawyers specializin in employment matters wondering in recen t years whether other businesses might become Moreover, the law explicitly holds top executivee liable for violations. Earlier this executives at Pearson Education, a textboom publisher in UpperSaddle N.J., apparently decided to interpret the law more Not wanting to risk prosecution by Massachusettzs authorities, the company decided to discontinue work with all of its freelancerzs in the state.
Freelance editor and writet John Sisson counted Pearson Education as one of his largesyt clients until hereceived e-mails from the compan y notifying him Pearson, citing the Independenr Contractor Law, no longer would use Massachusett contract workers. “I’ve lost business and I standc to losemore business,” said Sisson, a Newto resident. “It hurts firms in Massachusetts because it does not allos them to outsource the work they need to do and it hurtxs independent professionals who rely onthat work,” Sissohn said.
“The fact of the mattet is that theattorney general’s office is between a rock and a hard It’s a bad law and they’re in charge of enforcing it.” A Pearson spokeswoman declinec to comment for this story. Critics of the law are also concerneed that a successor to Attorney General Martha Coakley could choose to interpretg the law more broadly than she or her staffapparentlyh has. “A number of employment lawyers have worried since the law was enacted that a differentt attorney general might take a much broader and aggressive approacghto it,” said Joshua M.
Davis, managinv shareholder of the labor and employment lawfirm Ogletree, in “The law was designed to protect folkws who the Legislature believed were beinbg wrongfully denied benefits.” Davis note s that some clear guidance from the AG’xs office about the scope of the law is The fact that an out-of-state firm has decided not to work with Massachusettws freelancers is worrisome, but not yet a said Stephen Adams, a small-businesx advocate in the ’s Boston office. “We don’t know if it’s isolated and we don’t know if it’as warranted,” Adams said.
“The problem is for the you’re relying on the AG’s interpretation and powee to set priorities. Ultimately, you do want to fix the