House Labor & Industry Committee advances amended bill to tighten rules on construction-worker misclassification

The House Labor & Industry Committee voted to report House Bill 721, as amended, advancing legislation that updates the Construction Workplace Misclassification Act (Act 72 of 2010) to add new definitions, sharpen enforcement procedures and penalties, authorize the attorney general to investigate and prosecute repeat misclassification, and provide misclassified workers a private right of action.

Sponsor Representative Matthew Donahue, the bill’s prime sponsor, told the committee the measure implements unanimous recommendations from the joint task force on misclassification created by Act 85 of 2020 and cited task-force findings that “in 2021, nearly 11,000 misclassified employees suffered injury or illness at work but were denied workers’ compensation” and that “$91,000,000 in revenue was lost to the unemployment compensation trust fund due to worker misclassification.”

The committee considered two floor amendments. Amendment…