Florida House Bill 1305
One in Four construction workers in Florida lack workers compensation – a bigger issue is at hand; premium fraud in the construction industry.
When the House Commerce Committee agenda for April 14, 2021 was announced in Florida at 4:30 yesterday the 12’th, thankfully, HB 1305 was not a part of it. While this does not mean that the bill still cannot be taken up by the House Commerce Committee when it meets again Monday April 19’th, every day that passes is one less in the Legislative Session for this bill to get further traction.
We appreciate foremost the grass roots efforts of all PEO industry advocates in making sure that the real issue is addressed; the plight of uninsured worker. Further research by industry insiders has found that there are material amounts of workers in Florida whom are being passed off as 1099 employees (more on that to come) and still others that are being flatly paid under the table in cash. Add a language barrier that often exists with a typical construction worker in Florida and it is the backdrop for at best confusion and often times, unnecessary litigation. This is the dirty little secret trying to be pinned on the PEO industry.
Both FAPEO and NAPEO continue to do a good job in communicating the issues at hand and making sure that we are well represented in Tallahassee and the real issues are being addressed.
The focus of uninsured employees in workers’ compensation must be addressed. The lobbyist of the opposition went on public record that one in four workers on any given job site lack workers’ compensation insurance. Since PEO’s supply only one of seven checks to construction workers in Florida and these are workers that must be submitted as employees, that leaves a lot of claimants may finally be realized is not an offshoot of being in a PEO relationship,
Please continue to reach out to the following lawmakers to enforce that premium fraud is addressed in the State of Florida, not the legislation of it:
Here are the individuals to contact:
- Representative Webster Barnaby (Orange City) Webster.Barnaby@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative Dan Daley (Sunrise) Dan.Daley@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative Brad Drake (DeFuniak Springs) rad.drake@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative Joe Geller (Dania Beach) joseph.geller@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative Chris Latvala (Clearwater) Chris.Latvala@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative Randy Maggard (Zephyrhills) randy.maggard@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative Lawrence McClure (Plant City) Lawrence.McClure@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative Angela ‘Angie’ Nixon (Jacksonville) Angie.Nixon@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative Anika Tene Omphroy (Sunrise) Anika.Omphroy@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative Scott Plakon (Longwood) Scott.Plakon@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative Rene Plasencia (Titusville) Rene.Plasencia@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative Anthony Rodriguez (Miami) Anthony.Rodriguez@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative Bob Rommel (Naples) Bob.Rommel@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative Jason Shoaf (Blountstown) jason.shoaf@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative David Silvers (West Palm Beach) David.Silvers@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative Emily Slosberg (Delray Beach) Emily.Slosberg@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative Josie Tomkow (Auburndale) Josie.Tomkow@myfloridahouse.gov
- Representative Matt Willhite (Wellington) Matt.Willhite@myfloridahouse.gov
Thank you for your help. This is not over and will not be in my mind until we prove the point that this is a premium fraud issue, not a PEO issue. Please reach out and let those that represent us know!
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Contact Professional Employer Organization (PEO) Expert, Paul Hughes
Paul Hughes has been working with the Professional Employer Organization (“PEO”) industry since 1995 and data management since 2005. He is responsible for the day to day operations of both Libertate Insurance Services, LLC and RiskMD, which reports into the overall Ballator Insurance Group family of companies. Learn more about Paul.
Specializing in PEO Services: Workers Compensation, Mergers & Acquisitions, Data Management, Insurance Focus on: Employment Practices Liability (EPLI), Cyber Liability, Health Insurance, Occupational Accident, Business Insurance, Client Company, Casualty, and Disability Insurance.
