WORKERS’ WRONGS

North Carolina’s Labor Commissioner Somehow Doesn’t Think COVID-19 Is a Workplace Safety Issue

The virus has killed more than 280,000 Americans—and 5,000 North Carolinians—since February.

North Carolina’s labor commissioner doesn’t think COVID-19 is a workplace safety hazard. The Raleigh News & Observer reported Monday that Cherie Berry, who is leaving office in January, made the statement in a Nov. 9 letter to worker advocacy groups. The highly contagious virus, which has killed more than 280,000 Americans and 5,000 North Carolinians since February, “has not been proven likely to cause death or serious physical harm from the perspective of an occupational hazard,” Berry wrote. She wrote that the majority of deaths were in people above age 65, a group that is “no longer active in the workforce,” according to the News & Observer. Other state officials pushed back against the claim. “This is not a disease to gamble with,” state health department spokesperson Kelly Haight said in a statement. “People of all ages play a role in transmission of COVID-19 to older North Carolinians.”