Bill Would Give Newspaper Carriers Access to Workers' Comp Benefits

Wednesday, June 7, 2017 | 0

Thanks to a North Carolina senator's amendment to House Bill 205, newspaper carriers in the state could soon have access to workers' compensation benefits. 

But the House must agree to the changes, which Sen. Trudy Wade, R-Guilford, proposed before the bill passed the Senate 29-14 on Thursday, the Winston-Salem Journal reports. 

Newspaper carriers have been considered independent contractors under state law for more than 20 years, the Journal reports. Wade said the bill rectifies the "unfair misclassification of newspaper delivery workers and salespeople as independent contractors." It would require newspapers to provide workers' compensation coverage and pay an unemployment insurance tax for carriers. 

The N.C. Press Association opposes HB 205, which it says "threatens to kill jobs." The group also opposes another Wade proposal to allow local governments to post legal notices on their websites instead of in newspapers. SB 343 is currently stalled in the House. 

HB 205, by Rep. John Ager, D-Fairview, initially concerned itself only with the state's method of granting workers' compensation benefits to prison inmates. If passed, it would add a sentence to North Carolina law allowing inmates who participate in a state program that places them in private-sector jobs to collect workers' compensation benefits based on the state average weekly wage if hurt at work.

Currently, the maximum amount of weekly compensation available to an injured prisoner is $30.

The bill passed the House by a 109-4 vote on March 9.