New York\'s Construction Industry Fair Play Act Takes Effect

October 28, 2010

By: Subhash Viswanathan

Last month we posted on several bills signed into law by Governor Paterson in late August, one of those is the Construction Industry Fair Play Act, which applies to construction industry contractors in New York and is designed to deal with the problem of worker misclassification in that industry. Among other things, the Act creates a presumption that workers in the industry are employees, not independent contractors, unless three statutory criteria are met. The Act, which went into effect Tuesday, also provides for fines and criminal penalties for willful misclassification of employees. The New York State Department of Labor has issued a fact sheet explaining the statute. The Agency has also issued a poster which construction industry employers must display in a “prominent and accessible place on the job site.”