Rep. Ben Sherrer’s bill to crack down on employers who misclassify workers as “independent contractors” to avoid carrying workers’ compensation insurance or paying unemployment, social security and other taxes gained a unanimous vote from the judiciary subcommittee of the House appropriations panel Monday morning.

HB 2258 would require the Oklahoma Tax Commission, Workers’ Compensation Court and Oklahoma Employment Security Commission to share information and coordinate investigative and enforcement efforts.

Sherrer, D-Chouteau, gained adoption of an amendment adding the Oklahoma Department of Labor to the measure, at that agency’s request.

“It’s aimed at ultimately enforcing or attacking the issue of misclassification of workers,” he told the subcommittee.

Under the bill, the four state entities would create a secure database that could be accessed by enforcement personnel.

In addition to being illegal, Sherrer said, some companies’ deliberate actions to classify employees as independent contractors is harmful to the labor market, as they are often able to undercut law-abiding businesses by 30 percent-40 percent.

The 30 percent figure was cited in a recent report by the National Employment Law Project, which also concluded that misclassified workers miss out on fair pay and other workplace protections.

Louisiana and Utah have such statutes.

A similar bill by former Sen. Andrew Rice, D-Oklahoma City, failed in the Senate in 2010 after being amended in the House.