Ask Anything: 10 questions with N.C. Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry
N.C. Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry answers your questions about elevator safety, restaurant violations and overtime pay.
Posted — UpdatedOur Elevator and Amusement Device Bureau has 32 elevator inspectors and five area supervisors who perform annual inspections on the 22,000 elevators, escalators, moving walks, dumbwaiters and handicapped lifts under the department’s jurisdiction.
These inspectors also perform more than 6,000 amusement ride inspections. All of our inspectors hold Qualified Elevator Inspector certificates.
There is not an occupational safety and health regulation that covers an office being too cold. You could ask your employer if it is possible to install a diverter that would keep the cold air from blowing on you directly.
Our workplace safety and health professionals enforce the Occupational Safety and Health Act. They are trained to identify hazards of all types and severity and will issue citations where appropriate. Our goal is simply to make North Carolina workplaces as safe as possible. Currently our injury and illness rate is at an all-time low.
Employers are not required by either state or federal wage and hour laws to give breaks to employees who are at least 16 years of age. Employees younger than 16 are required to have a rest break of at least 30 minutes after five consecutive hours of work.
Both state and federal wage and hour laws require employers to pay all non-exempt employees who actually work more than 40 hours in a given workweek overtime pay at the rate of one and one-half their regular hourly rate. All hourly employees are non-exempt. There is no exemption for small offices.
This issue was presented to the Wage and Hour Director in December, who promptly addressed it with the USDOL national office for resolution. Steps have been taken to fix this problem and hopefully they are now in place.
We sometimes have to refer callers to the USDOL because of jurisdictional issues where the federal enforcement supersedes the protections of the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act.
If you continue to have these problems, please contact our Wage and Hour Director through the toll-free telephone number (1-800-625-2267) or by e-mail at ask.wageandhour@nclabor.com.
In order to file a wage payment complaint, citizens should call our toll free number above and an information specialist will be glad to take down the pertinent information.
North Carolina law states that: “The provisions of the North Carolina Wage and Hour Act do not apply to the State of North Carolina, any city, town, county, or municipality, or any State or local agency or instrumentality of government, . . .” (N.C. Gen. Stat. §95-25.14(c))
State and local government employees are protected under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of North Carolina. They can file complaints with our OSH Division concerning occupational safety and health problems on their jobs.
State and local government employees are also protected from retaliatory discrimination under the Retaliatory Employment Discrimination Act of North Carolina. This law covers employees in several areas, including workplace safety rights, mine safety and health, sickle cell and hemoglobin C carriers, genetic testing, National Guard service, juvenile justice system, and domestic violence.
Furthermore, state and local government agencies must follow the procedures of the Controlled Substance Examination Regulation Act if they perform employment-related drug testing.
Employers must keep an accurate record of the hours worked by each non-exempt employee for each day and each workweek whether they earn commission, an hourly wage or salary. However, the statutes do not specify the method to be used to keep such records such as time clocks or other methods.
Neither state nor federal wage and hour laws define temporary versus full-time employees. Employers are allowed to come up with their own definitions for temporary and full-time workers. Employers are also allowed to create their own policies regarding temporary workers. Therefore, this is a matter outside the enforcement jurisdiction of NCDOL.
I’m sure the photo does help with name recognition. State agencies are often lumped together in people’s minds as one big bureaucracy. I wanted to put a face with a name – someone that the people could identify with when they thought of the N.C. Department of Labor.
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