Rob Schofield
NC Policy Watch
It shouldnât and doesnât come as much of a surprise. Some things in the world of 21st-century policy and politics â President Donald Trump telling outrageous lies, state Sen. Phil Berger blocking the expansion of health coverage to hundreds of thousands of struggling North Carolinians, U.S. Sen. Richard Burr always making sure to look out for No. 1 â are as predictable as the sunrise.
And so when it came to light in recent days that North Carolina Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry â âthe elevator ladyâ â was taking a hands-off approach toward protecting the stateâs vulnerable frontline workers from exposure to the coronavirus (not to mention all the friends and relations with whom they come into contact), it felt utterly predictable.
In keeping with “raise the age” law, Governor establishes new panel that can make recommendations for clemency
Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order Thursday forming the state’s Juvenile Sentence Review Board. The advisory board will review the sentences of people who were tried in adult criminal court in their teens over a decade ago, and then make clemency and commutation recommendations to the governor, according to a press release.
Nowadays, most teens under 18 enter juvenile courts first if they don’t have criminal convictions, except if the conviction is a misdemeanor unrelated to impaired driving under North Carolina’s bipartisan Raise the Age Act. Yet before the state enacted the law in December 2019, 16 and 17-year-olds were automatically tried in the state’s adult criminal justice system regardless of their charges.
Dr. David Wohl, UNC School of Medicine (Photo: UNC)
After the state Department of Labor in November rejected a petition to mandate emergency workplace rules, several North Carolina advocacy groups are asking the Wake County Superior Court for a judicial review of the denial.
“Anything we can do to mitigate the transmission of that virus from someone is really essential,” Dr. David Wohl, professor of medicine at the UNC-Chapel Hill said at the virtual press conference hosted by the petitioners on Thursday. “We need to do that especially at our workplace.”
Those most vulnerable at workplaces during COVID-19 are workers in the meatpacking, poultry, agriculture, and health care industry, many of whom often don’t have access to insurance and fear retaliation if they report their employers to authorities, the petition stated.
RALEIGH North Carolina worker and civil rights advocates are unhappy with the outgoing state labor commissioner s refusal to put more regulations upon employers they say will protect employees from COVID-19.
Representatives of the groups that petitioned Commissioner Cherie Berry unsuccessfully this fall planned a virtual news conference for Thursday. They say the rules are needed to improve unsafe conditions for employees in manufacturing and food processing plants. State health department numbers show there s been over 300 case clusters of COVID-19 at workplaces since the spring and more than 30 related deaths.
Berry wrote last month that continuing to educate employers and workers about controlling the virus spread is a better solution than issuing punitive regulations. She also said case statistics indicate the virus threat is everywhere and not necessarily a occupational hazard.
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