From the Reporter, the Woodland Daily Democrat staff reported that a contractor was convicted of worker’s compensation fraud. One of the risks of misclassifying workers as independent contractors is that independent contractors are not covered by workers compensation insurance. In this case, the contractor misclassified a worker as an independent contractor and did not have workers compensation insurance that covered him . The article states:
In September of 2014, Gregory Rudolph, a 57-year-old contractor went to the victim’s home to perform electrical work, according to the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office. Although Rudolph was licensed by the Contractor’s State License Board, he did not have any workers’ compensation insurance coverage for employees.
On his permit application, Rudolph stated that he would not have any employees working with him on the project, however he brought an employee to the home to assist him, prosecutors said. Rudolph claimed the individual was an independent contractor, he treated him as an employee by assigning him work, providing needed tools, and paying him a wage set by Rudolph, the DA noted adding that the actions, combined with the fact that the employee was not a licensed contractor himself, made the individual an actual employee instead of an independent contractor. Making the situation worse, the DA said, Rudolph had the unskilled employee work from the roof of the house and feed wires down to him. Rudolph neglected to cut electricity to those wires, placing the employee at risk of death by electrocution, according to prosecutors….”
Read the full story at Vacaville contractor convicted of worker’s comp fraud.
