The U.S. Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service renewed a memorandum of understanding and streamlined a process for referrals to help stop businesses from misclassifying workers.

In a Dec. 15 news release, DOL announced the renewal and update of its memorandum of understanding with the IRS to work together to protect workers rights and prevent employers from misclassifying employees and deny them full wages, benefits and legal protections.

"We are determined to identify and resolve labor violations by employers who benefit by misclassifying employees as independent contractors and deprive them of the protections of the labor standards laws we enforce," Principal Deputy Wage and Hour Administrator Jessica Looman said in the news release. "Renewing our memorandum of understanding with the IRS strengthens our existing partnership by improving referral processes and information sharing to help us better serve the nation's workers."

Among other things, the renewed memorandum now includes a streamlined process for joint referrals. The memorandum also now includes closer coordination between DOL and the IRS to prevent businesses from misclassifying its workers, the release reported.

"The updated MOU will also help the department's Wage and Hour Division share information and work in concert with the IRS to strengthen enforcement of federal and state laws that protect workers' rights," the news release said.

The agreement between DOL and the IRS  was first reached in 2011. Since then, the two agencies share information when one discovers an employer misclassifying its personnel.