Governor McAuliffe Signs Executive Order Establishing Inter-Agency Task Force on Worker Misclassification and Payroll Fraud

Gov­er­nor McAu­li­ffe has signed Exec­u­tive Order 24 which will estab­lish­ing an inter­a­gency task force on worker mis­clas­si­fi­ca­tion and pay­roll fraud. The gov­er­nor said: “Every Vir­gin­ian who works hard and fol­lows the rules should get the pay and ben­e­fits that they deserve,” adding that “This exec­u­tive order will begin a process to ensure that employ­ers through­out the Com­mon­wealth fol­low the same rules when it comes to ben­e­fits and pay for employ­ees.”

Based on state and national stud­ies, worker mis­clas­si­fi­ca­tion low­ers Virginia’s state income tax col­lec­tions as much as $28 mil­lion a year. The Task­force will be chaired by the Sec­re­tary of Com­merce and Trade and will include rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Vir­ginia Employ­ment Com­mis­sion, the Depart­ment of Labor and Indus­try, the Depart­ment of Pro­fes­sional and Occu­pa­tional Reg­u­la­tion, the State Cor­po­ra­tion Commission’s Bureau of Insur­ance, the Depart­ment of Tax­a­tion, and the Work­ers’ Com­pen­sa­tion Com­mis­sion. A work­plan will be devel­oped and a report on the progress of the Task­force is due on the gov­er­nors desk by Decem­ber 1, 2014.