Sign Banking Presentation North Carolina Easy

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hello my name is Keisha Lovelace I'm a Deputy Commissioner with the North Carolina Industrial Commission the Industrial Commission is the state agency that administers the North Carolina Workers Compensation Act this presentation is designed for employers to provide general information about your obligations under the North connell Workers Compensation Act before we begin the presentation please note that this presentation is for general information only if you have any questions about particular circumstances of your business please seek legal advice you may also get general information from our information specialists that information will be presented to you at the end of the presentation please also be aware that this information is subject to change due to changes with workers compensation legislation made by the north carolina general assembly or through changes made through the Administrative Procedures Act to the North Carolina district Commission rules at the end of the presentation you will be provided with our website where you can find more information in up to date information about workers compensation rules and laws and our breaking news and announcements section on our webpage first generally any employer that regularly employs three or more people must have workers compensation insurance when I say regularly that means that you have people working for you with some consistency there's a consistent pattern to their employment and if you have three or more employees then you must carry workers compensation insurance this presentation will talk more about who constitute so who is an employee and exceptions to this rule first exceptions to them for your rule if you're a business or if your business we has the presence of radiation you're required to have workers compensation insurance if you have at least one employee if you are a sawmill or a logging operation if you have less than 10 employees and you saw in log less than 60 days in six consecutive months and your principal business is unrelated to saw milling or logging then you are not required to have workers compensation insurance and also of course if your employer if you are employed by the federal government your workers compensation claim is for unit United States Department of Labor and it's not administered by the North Carolina Industrial Commission there are also certain exceptions that apply to agricultural employers you are not required to carry workers compensation insurance if your agricultural employer that does not have 10 or more full-time non-seasonal agricultural workers then those people are not regularly employed by your enterprise in other words if you have seasonal workers who come in during a certain time period maybe a few months to help harvest crops and do things of that nature and you don't regularly employed 10 or more people throughout the year then you're not required to have workers compensation insurance similarly if you are a person who sells agricultural products where the farm boxes the produce together gives it to you in Europe and you're paid on a commission basis similar to like a farmers market you are not required to have workers compensation insurance as well now who is an employee every person engaged in employment whether it be an appointment there's a contract for hire or an apprenticeship whether the agreement is written or all express or implied that person is an employee it also includes people who are minors under the age of 18 it also includes people who may not be working here with proper documentation in the United States it also includes part-time workers temporary workers seasonal workers if any of these conditions apply then that person is an employee now who's excluded as an employee casual employees casual employees someone who is casually employed and they don't perform work that pertains to the regular course of your business one of the cases that we saw at the OU was heard by the Industrial Commission several years ago related to a business who hired two people to come in and set up for a company picnic and you'll picnic they were working for about 23 days that wasn't related to their regular business of that particular business so those people were classified as casual employees and we're not covered by the workers compensation act domestic service people who are directly employed by your household to provide domestic services or not count as an employee and then there's are there certain railroad employees I'm not going to go into great detail about railroad employees at this time if you have questions about that please contact our information specialist and as s end as I said that information will be available at the end of this presentation in regards to your business structure if you're a sole proprietor you have an LLC or partnership you're not counted automatically as an employee when you go and obtain workers compensation insurance they will ask you whether you want to be included as an employee and be covered by that policy however if you are incorporated you may elect to be excluded from being covered by the policy the President the Secretary the vice president however you are still counted as an employee so if you have a very small corporation your incorporated through the North Carolina Secretary of State or through any other state for that matter and you only have three people there one of whom is the president vice president and maybe employee even though you may exclude yourself from workers compensation coverage you are still counted as one of the employees and you must have workers compensation insurance we often get several questions about independent contractors an independent contractor is determined by a balancing test which i'm going to talk about briefly the focus is on the right to control and direct that particular person do you have the right to control how that person's work is done do you govern or look or assess how the employees do the work as the work progresses in contrast the independent contract is someone who works according to their own judgement the person for whom the independent contractors working is only concerned about the results the independent contractor can hire other people to assist him or her and direct those individuals and they work independently in other words you hire someone to come do some work on your house you're only caring about the results that person whether it's a plumber or a roofer can hire as many people as they want only thing you're concerned about is the end result you're not directing the daily conduct or the daily work of that particular person there are several factors we look at is the person engaged in an independent business calling or occupation are they using special skills and knowledge your training and performing the work are they doing specific work at a fixed price or lump sum they're not subject to being fired or terminate it because they choose one particular way to perform the project rather than another that person is not regularly employed by you are they free to use assistance as they think proper do they have full control over those assistance and do they select their own time in other words they don't have to be there for a set specified period of time at your place of business as I said this is a balancing test one factor may not weigh more than the other and when those issues come before the Commission we're looking in the particular circumstances of your business and of that relationship the business relationship you have with that person a few things to keep in mind simply giving someone an IRS form 1099 does not make that person an independent contractor we still follow and use this balancing test also having a written contract saying this person is an independent contractor or I agree that I am an independent contractor and that having that contract son by both parties does not make that person an independent contractor the Industrial Commission when these issues come up use this balancing test if you have questions about whether your business whether you're properly classifying your employees please seek legal advice or if you want more information call the information specialists our information specials cannot give legal advice but they may direct you to a person who may be able to provide you with some assistance there are also special rules governing the construction industry in construction as you know if you're in a construction injury as you know you have a general contractor and you may have several sub contractors working on a project you might have a subcontractor doing plumbing roofing carpentry work different trades on a construction site if a subcontractor hired or in contractual contractually engaged by the general contractor does not have workers compensation insurance that general contractor or the subcontractor who hired another subcontractor to work on the project may be liable for the work-related injuries of that subcontractors employees regardless of the number of employees that you are the subcontractor employees in other words I may be a general contractor I don't employ anyone and I may have two or three sub contractors working on a project if one of my subcontractors has an employee who that sustains an injury I may be held liable for that workers injuries if the subcontractor does not have workers compensation insurance similarly as a general contractor or that first tier subcontractor if that person tier subcontractor hires a subcontractor to work on the project and that second level or second-tier subcontractor doesn't have workers compensation insurance then the first tier subcontractor and/or the general contractor may be held responsible for workers compensation injury so you must protect yourself under the workers compensation act if a general contractor or subcontractor who engages another person to provide work on a project gets a certificate of insurance from the person with whom you can order business with whom you can contractually whom you contractually engage the work on that project if you get a certificate of insurance showing that that person has valid workers compensation insurance at the beginning of the relationship then you're protected and will not be held liable for the workers compensation injury also the law provides that as a general contractor you may also or the owner of a project you may secure a policy of workers compensation that will protect all of your subcontractors anyone who works on that project you can get a workers compensation policy that covers anyone that works on that construction site in regards to trucking any principal contractor intermediate contractor or subcontractor irrespective of whether you regularly employ three or more people if you contract with the individual who operates a truck a tractor license by the United States Department of Transportation and that person has not obtained workers compensation insurance for himself personally or his employees and subcontractors then the principal contractor will be held liable as an employer for the work-related injuries of that independent contractor his employees and subcontractors unlike the construction industry obtaining and valid certificate of insurance does not insulate you from liability the exceptions in regards to the trucking industry you will not be held liable as an employer if you contract with that independent contractor who is licensed by the United States Department of Transportation and that person is personally operating their vehicle or their truck pursuant to that license a trucking company may also get a blanket policy of insurance to cover all independent contractors employees and subcontractors and you may include in your contract with the independent in Traktor a provision that the subcontractor or independent contractor must pay a portion of that premium the other way in which you can try to protect yourself to make sure you are working with entering into contracts with independent contractors who have workers compensation insurance instant ask for proof of insurance even though it won't insulate you from liability you can request a certificate of insurance and then send requests that insurance company that you'll be provided with a notice of cancellation if something happens if that independent contractor or subcontractor the person with whom you are performing work cancels their insurance now where do you get workers compensation insurance one option is to become self insured these are your large businesses major companies these companies must become qualified to be self insured through the North Carolina Department of Insurance the North Carolina Department of Insurance will look at the financial stability of your business to make sure that you have enough financial solvency to cover any workers compensation claims you may also become a member of a self-insured fund the North Carolina Department of Insurance has a list of a number of self insurance funds in north carolina na self-insurance fund groups of related businesses come together pull their money for workers compensation purposes one common self-insurance fund into North Carolina League of Municipalities then of course you can get insurance in the open market where you go to an insurance agent and ask them hey I need workers compensation insurance they will complete the application they will contact the insurance companies and let you know how much the premium will be and how much it will cost if you are unable to get insurance because of your risk or because you may be a new business and don't have enough history for the insurance company to determine what a proper premium would be for you if your risk they want to ensure then you can get insurance to the North Carolina rate Bureau the North Carolina rate Bureau will take a nap shin and they work with four different maybe a little bit more but useless I believe it's about four different companies and what they would do is assign you to an insurance company for workers compensation purposes you can get information about the assigned risk pool through the North Carolina rate Bureau by contacting insurance agent or you can contact the North Carolina rate Bureau directly and they can direct you to a person that can maybe maybe able to provide your assistance now how much does workers compensation insurance costs I just mentioned history what happens in the workers compensation is they look at your history over a certain time period how many workplace injuries have you had at your business and what they do is they assign risk to different types of industries for example here at the Industrial Commission my job would be classified as a very low-risk Java sedentary I'm sitting behind a desk each day in contrast someone who is in roofing or construction was working in high places or trucking industry which made your own the road and may have several accidents those those industries may be a little bit more high-risk than what i'm doing hit the industrial commission so they look at the different industries and assign a risk to it and then they look and they say well this is the standard and then they look at your individual business if you come in above that standard meaning you have more workers compensation injuries or work-related injuries than the norm or more than the standard then you will pay a higher premium however if you come in below that standard your premium maybe less they also look at your business employees clerical workers even though you may be a trucking company for example if you have someone who's doing strictly office work clerical in nature that particular individual employee will be assessed or you will pay a lesser premium for strictly clerical employees even though you're a trucking business each year your insurance company will come and do an audit and they will look at your payroll they will look at in a sense the types of employees you have to make sure you're paying an adequate premium for the risk involved with your particular individual business and you may be asked to pay additional money to cover your risk for that year so in other words your workers compensation premiums based upon your payroll it is based upon your risk and it is based upon the ty e of industry you're in what happens if you don't have workers compensation insurance you can face stiff civil penalties if you're a business and you Industrial Commission learns that you do not have workers compensation insurance you can be assessed a minimum penalty of fifty dollars per day up to a hundred dollars per day depending upon the number of employees you have if you have between if you have 50 or less employees you will pay fifty dollars a day if you have between fifty and a hundred employees for example to say you have 63 employees you pay sixty three dollars per day without insurance once you reach 100 employees the penalty is one hundred dollars per day if your small business meaning less than 50 employees with that minimum penalty of fifty dollars per day that penalty results in an annual penalty of eighteen thousand five hundred dollars per year without insurance as an individual if someone has a workers compensation injury and you'll required to have workers compensation insurance and you fail to have that insurance if you are a person responsible in that business in other words you a person who could have brought them into compliance with the acting meaning you are the person who should have been going to get the workers compensation insurance you can individually be held responsible for the cost of that workers compensation claim as a penalty the cost of the workers compensation claim includes wage benefits it also includes the medical costs in serious injuries in heaven forbid in cases of death those penalties could be individually assessed upwards of a hundred thousand dollars or more if you negligently failed to have workers compensation insurance you could be charged with a misdemeanor if you willfully fail to have workers compensation insurance many of you were aware that you were supposed to have workers compensation insurance and you didn't you could be charged with a felony and be imprisoned please contact a lawyer or insurance agent if you are unsure of your responsibilities as an employer finally if you suspect someone of engaging in workers compensation fraud please contact the North Carolina dustry Commission fraud section they will go out and investigate and open the case and see em in and assess whether that employer is not complying with act and will also investigate instances of individuals who may be logically seeking workers compensation benefits contact information you may contact a fraud section by calling 1888 8 9 148 95 and you may contact our information specialists at 1 806 888 349 and select an option 3 and as always you may visit our website WWI CNC govt thank you