§ 131 — Payroll records

§ 131. Payroll records. (1) Every employer subject to the provisions\nof this chapter shall keep a true and accurate record of the number of\nhis or her employees, the classification of employees, information\nregarding employee accidents and the wages paid by him or her for a\nperiod of four years after each entry therein, which records shall be\nopen to inspection at any time, and as often as may be necessary to\nverify the same by investigators of the board, by the authorized\nauditors, accountants or inspectors of the carrier with whom the\nemployer is insured, or by the authorized auditors, accountants or\ninspectors of any workers' compensation insurance rating board or bureau\noperating under the authority of the insurance law and of which board or\nbureau such carrier is a member or the group trust of which the employer\nis a member. Any and all records required by law to be kept by such\nemployer upon which the employer makes or files a return concerning\nwages paid to employees shall form part of the records described in this\nsection and shall be open to inspection in the same manner as provided\nin this section. Any employer who shall fail to keep such records, who\nshall willfully fail to furnish such record as required in this section\nor who shall falsify any such records, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor\nand subject to a fine of not less than five nor more than ten thousand\ndollars in addition to any other penalties otherwise provided by law,\nexcept that any such employer that has previously been subject to\ncriminal penalties under this section within the prior ten years shall\nbe guilty of a class E felony, and subject to a fine of not less than\nten nor more than twenty-five thousand dollars in addition to any\npenalties otherwise provided by law.\n (2) Employers subject to subsection (e) of section two thousand three\nhundred four of the insurance law and subdivision two of section\neighty-nine of this chapter shall keep a true and accurate record of\nhours worked for all construction classification employees. The willful\nfailure to keep such record, or the knowing falsification of any such\nrecord, may be prosecuted as insurance fraud in accordance with the\nprovisions of section 176.05 of the penal law.\n (3) The chair, upon finding that an employer has failed to keep true\nand accurate records as required by this section, may impose upon such\nemployer, in addition to all other penalties, fines or assessments\nprovided for in this chapter, one thousand dollars for each ten day\nperiod of non-compliance or a sum not in excess of two times the cost of\ncompensation for its payroll for the period of such violation, which sum\nshall be paid into the uninsured employers' fund created under section\ntwenty-six-a of this chapter. When an employer fails to provide business\nrecords sufficient to enable the chair to determine the employer's\npayroll for the period requested for the calculation of the penalty\nprovided in this section, the imputed weekly payroll for each employee,\ncorporate officer, sole proprietor, or partner shall be the New York\nstate average weekly wage, multiplied by 1.5. Where the employer is a\ncorporation, the corporation and any of the following shall be liable\nfor the penalty provided in this subdivision: the president, secretary\nand treasurer. If the employer shall within thirty days after notice of\nthe imposition of a penalty by the chair pursuant to this subdivision\nmake an application in affidavit form for a redetermination review of\nsuch penalty, the chair shall make a decision in writing on the issues\nraised on such application.\n