Dear Representative (name):

(company name), representing 44 sheet metal and air conditioning firms in the counties of Riverside, San Bernadino and Orange urge your support of H.R. 1525, The Independent Contractor Clarification Act of 1999,introduced by Representatives Houghton and Kleezka. This bill is a priority to the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association(SMACNA) because it would narrow the current list of excuses from liability for misclassification and would remove incentives for abuse by unscrupulous employers. The goal of the bill is to curb the abuse of independent contractor status by employers who cheat the system and low-bid jobs by purging their payroll by forcing employees to accept independent contractors-status.

Misclassification of employees as independent contractors is in fact epidemic in the contruction industry and is a severe threat to degrade the quality of the workforce and service even in the union sector, spreading beyond the low-skilled, open-shop segments of the market where the abuses have been largely concentrated. This abuse has everything to do with unfair low-wage competition. Our industry can ill afford declining skills and abilities at a time when our product and services are expanding in complexity and sophistication. In fact, the effect of unfair competition by firms that misclassify employees and avoid the payment of employment taxes and other requirements of employment law threaten the maintenance of construction industry workforce standards in the area of safety, training and quality. By any measure, a crew of craft workers on the job are not "independent".

H.R. 1525 is an appropriate remedy for the current abuse of the law and should be passed in this session of Congress. Thank you for your consideration regarding in independent contractors misclassification issue- an issue of importance to both employees and legitimate employers.

Sincerely,

(your name)
(title)