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North Carolina businesses face fines for lack of insurance

On Behalf of | Feb 3, 2016 | Firm News, Workers' Compensation

When you work for an employer, that employer should always have workers’ compensation insurance. Even if you’re not in a dangerous profession, it’s possible to have an accident at work. Slick floors on a wet day, climbing a ladder that collapses, or even getting a shock from an outlet can result in injuries in the course of your workday. If you get hurt and find out that your boss doesn’t have compensation, then you may have to work through other avenues with your attorney to get the money you need.

A report out of North Carolina has shown that many companies in the state have been fined, because it’s been discovered that they don’t, or didn’t, carry workers’ compensation insurance. $1 million in civil fines have been collected by the commission responsible for enforcing insurance coverage.

As of April 2012, there were around 30,000 employers in the state that had not purchased workers’ compensation, even though they were legally obligated to do so. Another 11,000 had either cancelled policies or allowed their policies to lapse.

Another issue is that some companies have been misclassifying their employees, calling them independent contractors to avoid paying for workers’ compensation insurance. This will change in the future, though, because the commission plans to crack down on misclassification to help workers get the insurance coverage they need while they’re on the job. In 2015 alone, there were close to 2,000 cases that were affected due to an employer’s lack of coverage. At least 71 workers were injured while working for the employers who did not maintain proper insurance coverage.

Source: Claims Journal, “North Carolina Gets $1M in Fines From Employers Without Workers’ Comp,” Jan. 13, 2016

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