Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo jointly announced a $2.7 million settlement with a delivery firm that was misclassifying workers as independent contractors rather than as employees.
The company, Publishers Circulation Fulfillment, Inc. (PCF), delivers printed media, such as newspapers, magazines, catalogs, and other material to New Jersey households.
“Exploitation of employees, including through misclassification, is not only illegal, but also unjust, unethical, and unfair,” said Attorney General Platkin. “Workers lose essential protections, such as unemployment insurance and disability protection, and for businesses, unethical practices undermine fair competition across industries.”
“New Jersey workers are entitled to and deserve a just and fair labor market,” said Labor Commissioner Asaro-Angelo. “Moreover, if workers feel that they are being exploited, we strongly urge them to come forward so that we can investigate and obtain for them the back pay and benefits they were denied.”
New Jersey’s Division of Wage and Hour Compliance began an investigation of PCF, a Maryland-based company, in 2021 concerning the firm’s compliance with state employment labor laws between 2019 and 2022. The investigation revealed that PCF exerted considerable control over its delivery workers, a largely immigrant workforce who perform manual labor in the middle of the night (generally between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m.) for low wages. PCF failed to treat these workers as employees, as required by New Jersey’s labor and employment laws, and made various unlawful deductions from their pay.
When companies misclassify employees as independent contractors, workers lose crucial rights like minimum wage, overtime pay, and protection against discrimination. This also harms law-abiding employers by giving rule-breakers an unfair advantage in the marketplace for labor.
Of the $2.7 million, $1.6 million will be paid to eligible delivery workers in six installments. PCF will pay $410,00 to satisfy NJDOL penalties. The remaining $700,000 constitutes suspended penalties that will become due to NJDOL if PCF breaches the agreement.
Notably, in October 2022, New Jersey’s Division of Employer Accounts entered into a separate settlement with PCF, requiring in part that PCF pay $2,675,492 as a result of failing to make required contributions to the State’s Unemployment Compensation Fund and Disability Benefits Fund between 2015 and 2018.
Going forward, PCF agrees to treat all current and future delivery workers as employees under all NJ wage and hour laws, and under all other applicable state labor and employment laws, including, but not limited to, the New Jersey Unemployment Compensation Law and the Temporary Disability Benefits Law.
The State will also monitor compliance with the agreement for two years.
NJDOL is represented by the Office of the Attorney General’s Division of Law by Deputy Attorneys General Nadya A. Comas, Jeffrey L. Olshansky, and Marc D. Peralta, under the supervision of Labor Enforcement Section Chief Eve E. Weissman and Assistant Attorney General Mayur P. Saxena.
Original source can be found here.