The U.S. Labor Department announced today that it has entered into a cooperative alliance with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and others aimed at ending "the business practice of misclassifying employees [as independent contractors] in order to avoid providing employment protections." As the IRS's involvement might suggest, this collaboration has as much to do with enhancing the inflow of tax revenues and other sums to various governments as it does with "employee protections".

The arrangements' signatories include:

? Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Utah, and Washington,

? State labor officials in Hawaii, Illinois, and Montana, and

? New York's Attorney General.

The Labor Department says that these arrangements will permit it to "share information and coordinate law enforcement with" the participants.