North Carolina General Statutes 97-81. Blank forms and literature; statistics; safety provisions; accident reports; studies and investigations and recommendations to General Assembly; to cooperate with other agencies for prevention of injury
(a) The Commission shall prepare and cause to be printed, and upon request furnish, free of charge to any employee or employer, such blank forms and literature as it shall deem requisite to facilitate or prompt the efficient administration of this Article. Notwithstanding N.C. Gen. Stat. § 150B-2(8a)d., any new forms or substantive amendments to old forms adopted after July 1, 2013, shall be adopted in accordance with Article 2A of Chapter 150B of the N.C. Gen. Stat.. The Commission may authorize the use of electronic submission of forms and other means of transmittal of forms and notices when it deems appropriate.
(b) The Commission shall tabulate the accident reports received from employers in accordance with N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-92 and shall publish the same in the annual report of the Commission and as often as it may deem advisable, in such detailed or aggregate form as it may deem best. The name of the employer or employee shall not appear in such publications, and the employers’ reports shall be private records of the Commission, and shall not be open for public inspection except for the inspection of the parties directly involved, and only to the extent of such interest, and except for inspection by the Department of Labor and other State or federal agencies pursuant to subsections (d) and (e) of this section. These reports shall not be used as evidence against any employer in any suit at law brought by any employee for the recovery of damages.
(c) Repealed by Session Laws 2017-203, s. 5, effective August 11, 2017.
(d) In making such studies and investigations the Commission shall:
(1) Cooperate with any agency of the United States charged with the duty of enforcing any law securing safety against injury in any employment covered by this Article, or with any State agency engaged in enforcing any laws to assure safety for employees, and
Terms Used In North Carolina General Statutes 97-81
- adopted: means legal adoption prior to the time of the injury. See North Carolina General Statutes 97-2
- Commission: means the North Carolina Industrial Commission, to be created under the provisions of this Article. See North Carolina General Statutes 97-2
- compensation: means the money allowance payable to an employee or to his dependents as provided for in this Article, and includes funeral benefits provided herein. See North Carolina General Statutes 97-2
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- disability: means incapacity because of injury to earn the wages which the employee was receiving at the time of injury in the same or any other employment. See North Carolina General Statutes 97-2
- employee: means every person engaged in an employment under any appointment or contract of hire or apprenticeship, express or implied, oral or written, including aliens, and also minors, whether lawfully or unlawfully employed, but excluding persons whose employment is both casual and not in the course of the trade, business, profession, or occupation of his employer, and as relating to those so employed by the State, the term "employee" shall include all officers and employees of the State, including such as are elected by the people, or by the General Assembly, or appointed by the Governor to serve on a per diem, part-time or fee basis, either with or without the confirmation of the Senate; as relating to municipal corporations and political subdivisions of the State, the term "employee" shall include all officers and employees thereof, including such as are elected by the people. See North Carolina General Statutes 97-2
- employer: means the State and all political subdivisions thereof, all public and quasi-public corporations therein, every person carrying on any employment, and the legal representative of a deceased person or the receiver or trustee of any person. See North Carolina General Statutes 97-2
- employment: includes employment by the State and all political subdivisions thereof, and all public and quasi-public corporations therein and all private employments in which three or more employees are regularly employed in the same business or establishment or in which one or more employees are employed in activities which involve the use or presence of radiation, except agriculture and domestic services, unless 10 or more full-time nonseasonal agricultural workers are regularly employed by the employer and an individual sawmill and logging operator with less than 10 employees, who saws and logs less than 60 days in any six consecutive months and whose principal business is unrelated to sawmilling or logging. See North Carolina General Statutes 97-2
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- following: when used by way of reference to any section of a statute, shall be construed to mean the section next preceding or next following that in which such reference is made; unless when some other section is expressly designated in such reference. See North Carolina General Statutes 12-3
- state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories, so called; and the words "United States" shall be construed to include the said district and territories and all dependencies. See North Carolina General Statutes 12-3
- United States: shall be construed to include the said district and territories and all dependencies. See North Carolina General Statutes 12-3
(2) Permit any such agency to have access to the records of the Commission.
In carrying out the provisions of this section the Commission or any officer or employee of the Commission is authorized to enter at any reasonable time upon any premises, tracks, wharf, dock, or other landing place, or to enter any building, where an employment covered by this Article is being carried on, and to examine any tool, appliance, or machinery used in such employment.
(e) The Commission shall, upon written request from the Commissioner of Labor, provide from the Commission’s records the following information from claims filed by employees, and from employer reports of injury to an employee required by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-92:
(1) Name and business address of the employer;
(2) Type of business of the employer;
(3) Date the accident, illness, or injury occurred;
(4) Nature of the injury or disease reported; and
(5) Whether compensation for disability or medical expenses was paid to the injured employee.
Information provided to the Commissioner of Labor pursuant to this subsection, and to other State and federal agencies pursuant to subsection (d) of this section, shall be private and exempt from public inspection to the same extent that records of the Commission are so exempt. (1929, c. 120, s. 55; 1991 (Reg. Sess., 1992), c. 894, s. 2; 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 679, s. 10.2; 2013-294, s. 7; 2017-203, s. 5.)