Stop-Work Orders For Workers Comp

Stop-Work Orders are issued by the Florida Division of Workers’ Compensation for the following violations:

• Failure to obtain workers’ compensation insurance
• Materially understating or concealing payroll
• Materially misrepresenting or concealing employee duties to avoid paying the proper premium
• Materially concealing information pertinent to the calculation of an experience modification factor
• Failure to produce business records in a timely manner

The assessed penalty is 1.5 times what the employer would have paid in workers’ compensation insurance premiums for all periods of non-compliance during the preceding three-year period with the minimum penalty being a $1,000 fine.

During their 2010-2011 fiscal year, the Bureau conducted 34,252 investigations, of which 2,044 investigations were conducted in response to referrals alleging employer noncompliance. Investigations are physical, on-site inspections of an employer’s job-site or business location to determine compliance with workers’ compensation coverage requirements. Some investigations originate from referrals and consist of on-site inspections of residential and commercial construction sites.

Taken from the Florida Workers Compensation 2011 Annual Report, the graphics below demonstrate the impact of these investigations on the workers comp marketplace:

If your business has received a stop-work order, please contact me or one of our insurance agents as soon as possible, because there are other ramifications for not having workers compensation coverage. If you know of a business operating in Florida without workers’ compensation insurance, click here for more information about reporting them.