Questions Arise Over Reporting of North Carolina Workplace Deaths

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North Carolina authorities have praised a sharp decline in workplace deaths over the past few years, but what Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry hasn’t said is the state changed the criteria for the deaths it reports.

Berry reported just 23 deaths in the state in 2013 – the smallest amount since she took office in 2001. However, the News & Observer of Raleigh reports that ignored more than 80 other people who died on the job or from injuries suffered by working.

The labor agency says now it only counts deaths it investigates and can levy fines. That count doesn’t include self-employed people with unincorporated companies, workers on farms with fewer than 10 employees and victims of workplace violence.

“I thought we had something to celebrate. This, though, seems to paint a false picture of where we are,” said James Andrews, president of the North Carolina chapter of the AFL-CIO and a member of the state advisory council that investigates workplace safety.

The labor agency said it isn’t trying to mislead the public, said Kevin Beauregard, assistant deputy commissioner for the Occupational Safety and Health Division at the state Department of Labor.

“The reason why we think it’s important for those in our coverage is those are the ones we can have an impact on,” Beauregard said.

North Carolina is one of about 25 states that run its own safety and health program. Only Michigan and Oregon also just report cases investigated by the state agency. But both of those states also make clear in news releases and reports that the department is reporting only a small segment of people killed on the job.

Among the deaths left out in North Carolina over the last four years are a farm employee who fell into a grain bin, a state trooper struck by a fleeing car and a painter who fell off scaffolding.

Another death left out was Bill Goodson, a 72-year-old man killed instantly in March 2013 when he was hit in the head by a log that slipped off a machine at a site in Alamance County. Goodson’s boss hired him with a handshake agreement and paid him from time to time in cash. An investigator closed the case, saying the death was outside the state agency’s jurisdiction because Goodson was an independent contractor.

That makes no sense, said Goodson’s daughter, Faye Purgason.

“Daddy worked for him, and he died doing it,” Purgason said. “He might of got paid up under the table, but Daddy still worked for him.”