BOSTON/Charlestown - A year ago, in March 2008, Governor Deval Patrick signed Executive Order 499 establishing the “Joint Enforcement Task Force on the Underground Economy and Employee Misclassification.” On Friday, June 19th, at Bunker Hill Community College in Charlestown, the Task Force will hold its first Boston public hearing.

Over the course of the last year, according to a spokesperson for the Task Force, town meeting style hearings have been held in Pittsfield, Holyoke, Framingham, Worcester, Haverhill, Lynn, Quincy, and Fall River, MA.

Testimony is expected to center on workers who for a variety of reasons are paid “off the books.” Many earn less than the state mandated minimum wage and few, if any, have employers who pay state income, medical, and social security taxes or follow rules governing unemployment insurance and workers compensation. The Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD) estimates the state loses millions in tax revenue and payouts for uninsured workplace injuries.

According to the EOLWD website, “Uninsured injuries cost the Commonwealth and its legitimate businesses millions of dollars each year. Similarly, avoiding unemployment insurance (UI) creates unfunded liabilities that cause artificially high UI premiums.”

In addition, by classifying workers as independent contractors rather than employees, Massachusetts loses as much as $7 million a year in worker's compensation premiums, $4 million a year in payroll taxes, and $4 million a year in unemployment insurance payments, according to studies conducted in recent years by researchers at Harvard and the University of Massachusetts.

The Internal Revenue Service estimates the U.S. has lost hundreds of billions of dollars in tax revenues to the "underground economy."

Immigrants who work for companies that violate labor laws face particular hardships, according to advocates. Last August, activists with Centro Presente, the Chelsea Collaborative, and Greater Boston Legal Services, launched a campaign to stop labor abuses and called on the state’s Attorney General to pursue labor cases more vigorously.

Describing the situation as “exploitation,” Patricia Montes, Interim Executive Director of the Somerville-based Centro Presente organization said the campaign was initiated to “denounce labor abuse and demand the respect of labor rights of Latino immigrant workers.”

Task Force members come from at least 16 state agencies, including the Department of Labor, the Division of Occupational Safety, the Department of Housing and Community Development, and the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants.

In January, 2009, Open Media Boston spoke to George Noel, Director of the MA Department of Labor and Chair of the Task Force, about the Task Force's mission. The conversation was recorded at the offices of SEIU 615 in downtown Boston.

The union sponsored event featured a speech by Interfaith Worker Justice Executive Director and author Kim Bobo.

OMB Audio: Massachusetts Department of Labor Director George Noel (Jan. 28, 2009)

Web Resources:

http://www.mass.gov/dol/labortaskforce
http://www.cpresente.org/home.htm
http://www.iwj.org/template/index.cfm
http://www.openmediaboston.org/node/304