From the News & Observer, Mandy Locke and David Raynor report that North Carolina’s Industrial Commission is going after employers who fail to carry proper workers compensation insurance. They write:
In the last year, the state Industrial Commission, responsible for enforcing workers’ compensation laws, has cracked down on employers who fail to carry proper insurance. The agency has collected nearly $1 million in civil fines from uninsured companies and charged 100 employers with misdemeanors for willingly going without coverage.
State law requires any employer with three or more employees to provide workers’ compensation insurance at no cost to the workers.
While commission leaders are proud of their progress, they know the problem persists, with workers toiling daily in vulnerable situations.“The goal is to head it off and get to compliance before there’s an injury,” said Andrew Heath, who has overseen the commission’s work since Gov. Pat McCrory appointed him chairman in early 2013. Heath will soon leave the commission to be McCrory’s budget director; a replacement at the commission has not yet been named.
Since 2012, state leaders have worked to get companies to carry the proper insurance to make certain that workers are cared for if they get hurt on the job, or that families are compensated if they die from a work-related accident.
