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More on Those New North Carolina Labor Laws

January 11th, 2007 Posted by Mark

Keeping up with our momentum here, we shouldn’t stop while we are ahead when it comes to reviewing all of the new additions to the North Carolina labor laws when it comes to workers’ comp and tort issues associated with workers getting hurt on the job at one of your work sites. Before I am finished, we will have covered all of the laws that you guys need to know. Heck, I promised it, so now I have to deliver, right?

Well, enough self-promotion here. Let me get to work. The next law I am going to look at was ratified by the North Carolina Common Assembly on July 27 and signed into effect by the Governor, Michael Easley later that month. The law is the Senate Bill 602, Session Law 2006-264. It has to do with any such future time that the Senate or the House in North Carolina want to make similar labor law changes for workers’ comp. This is a bit of a tangent here, but it is important to note that law makers have to give themselves the leeway to make technical changes to laws, not just wholesale policy changes.

The difference is a fine nuance, but it’s an important distinction. Because let’s say that the state of North Carolina has the right workers’ comp system set up, but eventually decides that it needs to change the amount of money afforded injured workers, or the amount of time that a disabled person can miss work before being categorized as a permanent disability. Those technical changes can be made without having to completely rewrite the law and upset the workers’ comp system.

In the case of this particular North Carolina labor law, the Senate decided it was necessary because the state has a General Statutes Commission, which review the so-called General Statutes. When this commission comes back with its technical findings, the state will want to change the laws to meet them.