North Carolina Child Labor Law News: The Explanation

January 9th, 2007 Posted by Mark

As you have seen—and will continue to see—when you read my blog, not only do I report on the latest and greatest when it comes to human resources news, workers’ comp news, labor law news, and any and all news that has to do with employers and employing, I also provide great in depth analysis and explanation on that news. So you get the news, and then you understand why that news is taking place, and why it is important. And how much do you get charged for all of this service? Nothing!

Anyway, my point—remember that online site that the North Carolina Department of Labor has set up for applying for child labor work permits? Well, you should remember it if you employ minors at your company. The Web site set up by the North Carolina Department of Labor is very important because it completely speeds up the process for employers and their minor employees when it comes to getting a work permit.

But that story and this Web site may leave you astute employers scratching your heads and wondering why this work permit is needed in the first permit. Doesn’t the state trust employers to check people’s ages when they first start working for them, to make sure that they are a certain age to follow state labor laws? In a word, no.

The whole child labor law process was set up because workers back in the day—back in the 19th century and early 20th century days—would abuse child labor. So the youth employment work permit is now required in North Carolina for anyone under the age of 18 to make sure that these kids aren’t working in dangerous or unhealthy locations. It also helps to make sure that 14 and 15 year old kids are not working too many hours.

Remember, back in the day, kids would work 12 hours a day, miss school and work in horrible conditions in factories and mines and such. This, folks, is now the 21st century—hence, Web sites used to prevent child labor law violations.

No Comments >> Posted in Child Labor Laws,Compliance Issues,North Carolina,North Carolina

North Carolina Safety Award News (Cont.)

January 7th, 2007 Posted by Mark

You think you actually have a chance to win these North Carolina safety awards (see below)? In that case, you should get in touch the North Carolina Department of Labor pronto, through the Web, and request an application for the awards.

You could receive a gold or silver award if you win. The silver award means that you had an injury where the worker missed at least one full work day, not including the actual day that the worker got hurt. If you win the gold award, on the other hand, that means that you had a successful rate of lost workdays, including those days workers spent away from work and restricted work days.

You could also apply to win a million hour award. That is given out to companies that have had 1 million hours of work time logged at site without any injury that involves time away from work. You can win another award for each 1 million hours’ worth that you do not have an injury to a worker that keeps them away from work for a day or more.

Winning such awards, North Carolina employers, not only means that you are somewhere and somehow saving yourselves some money on workers’ comp rates, disability rates, and on workers’ time away from work and lost productivity in general. Winning such an award can mean that you stand out among your peers. Lord knows, you may start to get invited to speak at local safety conferences or even national workers’ comp conferences to share how you have been successful. In the very least, you silver or gold medal—or your 1 million awards—could be a valuable tool in helping you to recruit the best talent for workers and manager staff in your industry. Everyone wants to work somewhere that is safe.

No Comments >> Posted in Federal Labor Laws,Health and Safety,North Carolina,Regulations

Posting Requirements for Employers in the State of North Carolina (NC)

September 11th, 2006 Posted by Hannah

The state of North Carolina requires its employers to post current North Carolina posters that outline the state and federal labor laws.  These posters need to contain information on state laws such as unemployment insurance, OSHA, the Wage and Hour Act and workers’ compensation.  The federal laws that North Carolina employers should post are USERRA – Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law, Federal Minimum Wage, Employee Polygraph Protection Act, Family and Medical Leave Act and OSHA – Job Safety and Health Protection.

North Carolina posters need to be placed where the employees have access to them.  This means they need to be in a visible spot in an employee “common” area such as a mail room, break room or work room – anywhere that employees tend to gather on a regular basis.  The state’s employers also need to make sure that the posters they have posted are current – they might not be considering that labor and employment laws tend to change frequently, sometimes even annually. 

The state posting regulations for North Carolina posters are primarily meant to benefit the employees.  In many cases, this is the main place where employees have access to their rights and responsibilities when it comes to state and federal labor laws.  Additionally, the laws outlined on the posters often give information about the complaint process including the contact information for the applicable state and federal agencies.

Employers also benefit from the information on the North Carolina posters, however.  They can use the posters as a reference to help them know exactly what they need to do to uphold the state and federal laws that apply to them and their employees.  For example if they have a question about what constitutes an exception to the minimum wage law, they can check the poster to find out.

No Comments >> Posted in North Carolina

North Carolina (NC) Posting Requirements for Employers

August 30th, 2006 Posted by Nicole

North Carolina (NC) Posting Requirements for Employers have been enacted to ensure that each employee has their labor right rights communicated to them and upheld. These labor law rights must be clearly posted in the workplace so that all employers can see them.

Labor law posters contain all labor law rights that employees need to be aware of. Posters will contain a brief overview of the laws. It is up to the employees to further educate themselves about the details of the laws. Basically, the North Carolina (NC) Posting Requirements for Employers state the labor law posters should be placed in highly visible areas of the workplace, such as an employee break room.

Labor law posters must be up at all times. In the event that a poster is removed, the employer must replace the poster. The employer must also replace the poster is a law is updated. Often, I know that labor laws are updated on an annual basis. This means that each year will bring a new poster. The employer is entirely responsible for ensuring that the new poster is purchased a placed in the workplace.

There are three state laws that need to be stated on the labor law poster. These laws are: Notice to Employees, Workers’ Compensation Notice, and the certificate of Coverage and Notice to Workers as to Benefit Rights (Unemployment Insurance.)

The labor law posters are often not only the first place employees gain information about their labor law rights, but they are also the best resource that employees have on a fairly basis should they need to contact a state labor law agency. If an employee believes that his or her rights have been violated, the employee can find contact information for state agencies on the labor law poster, which makes protecting their rights simplified.

No Comments >> Posted in Compliance Issues,Employer Requirements,Labor Law Posters,North Carolina,North Carolina