The Industrial Commission has already fined and charged companies operating without proper insurance.
In North Carolina, the Industrial Commission, the authority responsible for the enforcement of laws regarding workers compensation, has now started to target employers that have not been carrying adequate insurance in order to comply with the state’s laws.
As a result of the crackdown that has been occurring over the last year, $1 million in civil fines have been collected.
These civil fines were collected from companies without adequate (or any) workers compensation coverage. Moreover, beyond fining uninsured businesses, it has also charged 100 companies with misdemeanors for having continued to operate willingly without having purchased the coverage that is required by state law. According to the legal requirements in North Carolina, companies that employ three or more people must provide those employees with workers compensation insurance coverage at no expense to the employees.
Even though the situation with workers compensation coverage is improving, problems do persist.
Even though the situation has been getting better in the state, the leaders of the commission still acknowledge that the problems haven’t entirely gone away. According to Andrew Heath, who is responsible for overseeing the work conducted by the commission, “The goal is to head it off and get to compliance before there’s an injury.” Heath was appointed as the chairperson of the Industrial Commission in 2013 by Governor Pat McCrory.
Heath has already announced that he will be stepping down from his current position in order to accept a new one as budget director for McCrory. As of yet, a replacement for Heath has not been announced by the Industrial Commission.
Back in 2012, a report was made in the News & Observer that there were up to 30,000 employers in the state who remained uninsured when they were legally obligated to purchase coverage. The next year, the auditor in the state reported that nothing had been done by state officials to step in even after over 11,000 allowed their workers compensation policies to lapse in 2012 or that had cancelled them. Throughout the last fiscal year, there have been almost 2,000 case investigations which have to do with possible failures to purchase adequate coverage. So far, these investigations have ensured that 800 companies have purchased the coverage needed in order to comply with the law.
