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This entry was published on 2014-09-22
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SECTION 131
Payroll records
Workers' Compensation (WKC) CHAPTER 67, ARTICLE 7
§ 131. Payroll records. (1) Every employer subject to the provisions
of this chapter shall keep a true and accurate record of the number of
his or her employees, the classification of employees, information
regarding employee accidents and the wages paid by him or her for a
period of four years after each entry therein, which records shall be
open to inspection at any time, and as often as may be necessary to
verify the same by investigators of the board, by the authorized
auditors, accountants or inspectors of the carrier with whom the
employer is insured, or by the authorized auditors, accountants or
inspectors of any workers' compensation insurance rating board or bureau
operating under the authority of the insurance law and of which board or
bureau such carrier is a member or the group trust of which the employer
is a member. Any and all records required by law to be kept by such
employer upon which the employer makes or files a return concerning
wages paid to employees shall form part of the records described in this
section and shall be open to inspection in the same manner as provided
in this section. Any employer who shall fail to keep such records, who
shall willfully fail to furnish such record as required in this section
or who shall falsify any such records, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor
and subject to a fine of not less than five nor more than ten thousand
dollars in addition to any other penalties otherwise provided by law,
except that any such employer that has previously been subject to
criminal penalties under this section within the prior ten years shall
be guilty of a class E felony, and subject to a fine of not less than
ten nor more than twenty-five thousand dollars in addition to any
penalties otherwise provided by law.

(2) Employers subject to subsection (e) of section two thousand three
hundred four of the insurance law and subdivision two of section
eighty-nine of this chapter shall keep a true and accurate record of
hours worked for all construction classification employees. The willful
failure to keep such record, or the knowing falsification of any such
record, may be prosecuted as insurance fraud in accordance with the
provisions of section 176.05 of the penal law.

(3) The chair, upon finding that an employer has failed to keep true
and accurate records as required by this section, may impose upon such
employer, in addition to all other penalties, fines or assessments
provided for in this chapter, one thousand dollars for each ten day
period of non-compliance or a sum not in excess of two times the cost of
compensation for its payroll for the period of such violation, which sum
shall be paid into the uninsured employers' fund created under section
twenty-six-a of this chapter. When an employer fails to provide business
records sufficient to enable the chair to determine the employer's
payroll for the period requested for the calculation of the penalty
provided in this section, the imputed weekly payroll for each employee,
corporate officer, sole proprietor, or partner shall be the New York
state average weekly wage, multiplied by 1.5. Where the employer is a
corporation, the corporation and any of the following shall be liable
for the penalty provided in this subdivision: the president, secretary
and treasurer. If the employer shall within thirty days after notice of
the imposition of a penalty by the chair pursuant to this subdivision
make an application in affidavit form for a redetermination review of
such penalty, the chair shall make a decision in writing on the issues
raised on such application.