GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1997

 

 

SESSION LAW 1998-187

SENATE BILL 350

 

 

AN ACT TO AMEND THE LAWS GOVERNING EMPLOYEE INSURANCE COMMITTEES TO ALLOW FOR A CENTRAL EMPLOYEE INSURANCE COMMITTEE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  G.S. 58-31-60(b) reads as rewritten:

"(b)      Appointment of Employee Insurance Committee Members. - The members of the Employee Insurance Committee shall be appointed by the head of the payroll unit. The Committee shall consist of not less than five or more than nine individuals a majority of whom have been employed in the payroll unit for at least one year. The committee members shall, except where necessary initially to establish the rotation herein prescribed, serve three-year terms with approximately one-third of the terms expiring annually. Committee membership make-up shall fairly represent the work force in the payroll unit and be selected without regard to any political or other affiliations. It shall be the duty of the payroll unit head to assure that the Employee Insurance Committee is completely autonomous in its selection of insurance products and insurance companies and that no member of the Employee Insurance Committee has any conflict of interest in serving on the Committee. A committee on employee benefits elected or appointed by the faculty representative body of a constituent institution of The University of North Carolina shall be deemed constituted and functioning as an employee insurance committee in accordance with this section. Any decision rendered by the Employee Insurance Committee where the autonomy of the Committee or a conflict of interest is questioned shall be subject to appeal pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, or in the case of departments, boards and commissions which are specifically exempt from the Administrative Procedure Act, pursuant to the appeals procedure prescribed for such department, board or commission.

All payroll units in existence on May 21, 1985, shall continue to be deemed payroll units, regardless of any subsequent consolidation of such payroll units, for purposes of the appointment of the members of the Employee Insurance Committee in order to assure such units the continuing ability to meet the needs and desires of the employees of such units by having the right to select insurance carriers and insurance products.  No Employee Insurance Committee shall be created for employees represented by a previously existing committee.  Any such duplicative Employee Insurance Committees are hereby disbanded. In the event of the consolidation of a payroll unit, the head of the former payroll unit shall appoint the members of the Committee in accordance with the provisions of this section."

Section 2.  Effective January 1, 1999, the employee insurance committees of the Department of Health and Human Services are abolished and shall be replaced with a single employee insurance committee, appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, to represent all employees of that Department.

Section 3.  This act becomes effective January 1, 1999.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 8th day of October, 1998.

s/   Dennis A. Wicker

President of the Senate

 

s/   Harold J. Brubaker

Speaker of the House of Representatives

 

s/   James B. Hunt, Jr.

Governor

 

Approved 9:19 a.m. this 16th day of October, 1998