A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT amending the labor And pesticide laws for the protection of agricultural families.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 143‑466 reads as rewritten:
"§ 143‑466.  Records; information; inspection; enforcement.
(a)	The Board shall require licensees to maintain records with respect to the sale and application of such pesticides as it may from time to time prescribe. Such relevant information as the Board may deem necessary may be specified by rule. The records shall be:
(1)	Kept for a period of three years from the date of the application of the pesticide to which the records refer;
(2)	Available for inspection and copying by the Board or its agents at its request; and
(3)	Provided on request within a reasonable time period to the North Carolina Department of Labor; to treating health care personnel initiating diagnostic testing or therapy for a patient with a suspected case of pesticide poisoning; to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services; or in the case of a workers' compensation claim, to the employee or the employee's designated representative.
Knowingly providing false records to the Board is a violation of this Article.(b)	The Board may publish information regarding injury which may result from improper application or use of pesticides and the methods and precautions designed to prevent such injury.
(c)	The Board may provide for inspection of any equipment used for application of pesticides and may require repairs or other changes before its further use for pesticide application. A list of requirements that equipment shall meet may be adopted by the Board by regulation.
(d)	The Board may provide for inspection of any place of business where pesticides are stored or sold and may require changes in methods of handling, displaying and storing of all pesticides. A list of requirements that places of business must meet may be adopted by regulation of the Board.
(e)	For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Article, inspectors designated by the Board may enter upon any public or private premises at reasonable times, in order:
(1)	To have access for the purpose of inspecting the premises and any equipment subject to this Article and such premises on which such equipment is kept or stored;
(2)	To inspect lands actually or reported to be exposed to pesticides;
(3)	To inspect storage or disposal areas;
(4)	To inspect or investigate complaints of injury to humans, land or plants; or
(5)	To sample pesticides being applied, or to be applied.
No person shall refuse entry or access to any authorized representative of the Board who requests entry for purposes of inspection, and who presents appropriate credentials, nor shall any person obstruct, hamper or interfere with any such representative while in the process of carrying out his official duties. Should the Board or its designated agent be denied access to any land where such access was sought for the purposes set forth in this Article, the Board may apply to any court of competent jurisdiction for a search warrant authorizing access to such land for said purposes. The court may upon such application issue the search warrant for the purposes requested.(f)	For the purposes of this section, the worker protection standard of 40 C.F.R. § 170, as amended, apply in this Article. Specific information required by 40 C.F.R. § 170.122 and § 170.222 must be maintained as written records which also include the date, time, and field location of worker reentry to the treated area after pesticide application. Such records shall be subject to the requirements of G.S. 143‑466(a).
(g)	Any employee or representative of employees who believes that a violation of this Article exists in any workplace where the employee is employed may request an inspection of that workplace by giving notice of the alleged violation to the Board or its designated inspectors. Upon the request of the person, his name and the names of individual employees referred to therein shall not appear in any record published, released, or made available by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, including the Notice of Violation. The Board and its designated inspectors may confidentially interview any employee when reasonably necessary for an investigation of a suspected violation of this Article."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 95‑241(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a)	No person shall discriminate or take any retaliatory action against an employee because the employee in good faith does or threatens to do any of the following:
(1)	File a claim or complaint, initiate any inquiry, investigation, inspection, proceeding or other action, or testify or provide information to any person with respect to any of the following:
a.	Chapter 97 of the General Statutes.
b.	Article 2A or Article 16 of this Chapter.
c.	Article 2A of Chapter 74 of the General Statutes.
d.	G.S. 95‑28.1.
e.	Article 16 of Chapter 127A of the General Statutes.
f.	G.S. 95‑28.1A.
g.	Article 52 of Chapter 143 of the General Statutes.
(2)	Cause any of the activities listed in subdivision (1) of this subsection to be initiated on an employee's behalf.
(3)	Exercise any right on behalf of the employee or any other employee afforded by Article 2A or Article 16 of this Chapter, by Article 2A of Chapter 74 of the General Statutes, or by Article 52 of Chapter 143 of the General Statutes.
(4)	Comply with the provisions of Article 27 of Chapter 7B of the General Statutes.
(5)	Exercise rights under Chapter 50B. Actions brought under this subdivision shall be in accordance with the provisions of G.S. 50B‑5.5."
SECTION 3.  G.S. 95‑225 is amended by adding two new subsections to read:
"(h)	The operator shall provide at least one working telephone. Migrants shall be informed of its location and allowed access to the telephone. The name, address, and telephone number of the nearest emergency medical care facility shall be posted near the telephone in a place where it can be readily seen and read by workers, in a language they can understand. The operator shall inform migrants promptly of any change to the information on emergency medical care facilities.
(i)	For purposes of this Article, the established federal standard provided in 29 C.F.R. § 1910.142(f)(1)(ii) does not apply. The following standard shall apply to migrant housing: one showerhead within a separate shower stall shall be provided for every eight migrants."
SECTION 4.  G.S. 143‑460(29) reads as rewritten:
"(29)	'Pesticide applicator' means any person who owns or operates a pesticide application business or who provides, for compensation, a service that includes the application of pesticides upon the lands or properties of another; any public operator; any golf course operator; any seed treater; any person engaged in demonstration or research pest control; and any other person who applies pesticides for compensation and is not exempt from this definition. It does not include:
a.	Any person who uses or supervises the use of a pesticide (i) only for the purpose of producing an agricultural commodity on property owned or rented by him or his employer, or (ii) only (if applied without compensation other than trading of personal services between producers of agricultural commodities) on the property of another person, or (iii) only for the purposes set forth in (i) and (ii) above.
b.	Any person who applies pesticides for structural pest control, as defined in the North Carolina Structural Pest Control Law (G.S. Chapter 106, Article 4C).
c.	Any person certified by the Water Treatment Facility Operators Board of Certification under Article 2 of Chapter 90A of the General Statutes or by the Wastewater Treatment Operators Plant Certification Commission under Article 3 of Chapter 90A of the General Statutes who applies pesticides labeled for the treatment of water or wastewater.
d.	Any person who applies antimicrobial pesticides that are not classified for restricted use and are not being used for agricultural, horticultural, or forestry purposes.
e.	Any person who applies a general use pesticide to the property of another as a volunteer, without compensation.
f.	Any person who is employed by a licensed pesticide applicator.
g.	Any person who produces an agricultural commodity, and whose only employees are that person's family members, defined as a parent, spouse, child, stepchild, foster child, stepparent, foster parent, brother, or sister."
SECTION 5.  G.S. 143‑469 reads as rewritten:
"§ 143‑469.  Penalties.
(a)	Any person who shall be adjudged to have violated any provision of this Article, or any regulation of the Board adopted pursuant to this Article, shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor. In addition, if any person continues to violate or further violates any provision of this Article after written notice from the Board, the court may determine that each day during which the violation continued or is repeated constitutes a separate violation subject to the foregoing penalties.
(b)	A civil penalty of not more than two thousand dollars ($2,000) may be assessed by the Board against any person who violates or directly causes a violation of any provision of this Article or any rule adopted pursuant to this Article. However, a person referred to in G.S. 143‑460(29)g. may only be assessed a civil penalty of not more than five hundred dollars ($500.00) per violation.
(c)	Proceedings for the assessment of civil penalties under this section shall be governed by Chapter 150B of the North Carolina General Statutes. If the person assessed a civil penalty fails to pay the penalty to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the Board may institute an action in the superior court of the county in which the person resides or has his principal place of business to recover the unpaid amount of said penalty. An action to recover a civil penalty under this section shall not relieve any party from any other penalty prescribed by law.
	
(e)	The clear proceeds of civil penalties assessed pursuant to this section shall be remitted to the Civil Penalty and Forfeiture Fund in accordance with G.S. 115C‑457.2."
SECTION 6.  This act is effective when it becomes law.