Summary of S.B. 195

• Creates uniform employee classification standard: Establishes a new Chapter 4175 defining when individuals performing services must be classified as employees rather than independent contractors, applying a three-factor test requiring the director of commerce to determine employment status based on control, scope of work, and independent business status.

• Modifies existing labor law definitions: Amends sections 4111.14, 4113.15, 4115.03, 4123.01, and 4141.01 to reference the new employee classification factors, making the standard uniform across wage and hour, workers' compensation, and unemployment compensation laws.

• Establishes enforcement and penalties: Gives the director of commerce authority to investigate misclassification complaints, conduct audits, hold hearings, and impose civil penalties up to $15,000 for first violations and $25,000 for repeat violations within five years, with doubled penalties for knowing violations.

• Provides private right of action: Allows individuals and labor organizations to file civil lawsuits for misclassification and recover denied wages, liquidated damages, compensatory damages up to $500 per violation, and attorney's fees without exhausting administrative remedies.

• Includes protections and coordination: Prohibits employer retaliation, requires notice postings, mandates inter-agency information sharing, bars waiver of rights, and creates a state registry of employers with multiple violations that bars them from state contracts for four years.