Establishes the Truck Operator Independent Contractor Act.

This bill creates a presumption that a work arrangement in the drayage trucking or parcel delivery trucking industry is an employer-employee relationship unless the party receiving the services can overcome the legal presumption of employment by showing to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development that: 1. The individual has been and will continue to be free from control or direction over the performance of that service; 2. The service is either outside the usual course of the business for which the service is performed, or the service is performed outside of all the places of business of the employer for which the service is performed; and 3. The individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business.Employers who misclassify individuals in the drayage trucking industry or parcel delivery trucking industry as independent contractors for purposes of avoiding relevant provisions of the "New Jersey Prevailing Wage Act," the "unemployment compensation law," the "Temporary Disability Benefits Law," the "New Jersey Gross Income Tax Act," the workers' compensation law, or "New Jersey State Wage and Hour Law," will be, if the misclassification is done knowingly, guilty of a crime of the third degree and be punished by a fine of not more than $15,000 or imprisonment for not more than one year for a first offense, or both, and by a fine of not more than $30,000, or imprisonment for not more than two years, or both, for a subsequent willful offense, and, if the misclassification is done recklessly, of a crime of the fourth degree and punished by a fine of not more than $10,000, or imprisonment for not more than six months for a first offense, or both, and by a fine of not more than $20,000 or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, for a subsequent offense.The bill also makes it unlawful for an employer or any other party to discriminate in any manner or take adverse action against any person in retaliation for exercising rights protected under the bill. These rights include the right to file a complaint or inform any person about an employer's noncompliance with this act; the right to inform any person of his potential rights; and the right to assist him in asserting such rights. By combining the bill with AB 3694, the substitute also removes the current exemption from unemployment insurance coverage for operators of commercially licensed motor vehicles weighing 18,000 or more used for highway movement of motor freight, who own, or lease or finance the purchase of, the vehicle through an independent entity, and are compensated by a share of gross revenue or according to a schedule of payments based on the distance and weight of shipments.

Died upon adjournment.

01/27/2016 Introduced. Referred to Assembly Committee on Labor.
05/19/2016 Transferred to Assembly Committee on Transportation, Public Works and Independent Authorities. Reported from Committee as a substitute (combined with AB 3694). To second reading.