Texas GOP Vote

As the Texas Legislature begins its 2013 regular session, employers across the state are looking at proposed legislation to place tighter controls on preventing employee misclassification. Misclassification is a practice used by many unscrupulous companies where they take people who should be classified as hourly employees and instead classify them as 1099 subcontractors. This gives them an unfair competitive advantage over companies who properly classify their employees and cheats the state and taxpayers on many levels as 

Employee misclassification and wage theft continue to be a serious problem that affects individuals, businesses and the Texas economy. Earlier this month, I wrote about an incident of wage theft that involved Houston Independent School District (HISD). The story centered around two people, Marvin Mundo and Marciano Cruz.  These two men had worked on projects for Jane Long Middle School and Sharpstown High School.

Wage theft, payroll fraud, alleged bribery and Houston Independent School District (HISD). These are a group of phrases you really don't want to see in the same sentence. But, according to a recent blog post on Construction Citizen, HISD is the latest example of contractor's abuses of employees and theft of wages and other payroll abuses.

According to Construction Citizen, Marvin Mundo and Marciano Cruz are owed over $11,000 in wages from a contractor hired by HISD to do construction projects for Jane Long Middle School and Sharpstown High School.