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RALEIGH—An agreement on changes to rules governing North Carolina workers' compensation claims cleared a House committee on Thursday.

The panel voted to recommend the bill which its chief sponsor said followed weeks of negotiations with groups representing employers, employees and the state. Rep. Dale Folwell of Winston-Salem said the agreement will protect workers, compensate the injured and encourage people to return to work.

The bill caps temporary payments for a totally disabled worker at nearly 10 years. The current law has no cap, which Rep. Folwell said places North Carolina at a competitive disadvantage. The bill also raises the maximum time for wage benefits for the partially disabled and for death benefits.

This bill has garnered a lot of attention from groups like the AFL-CIO and Advocates for Justice who fought to make sure workers were not shortchanged to give better conditions to employers who pay out high premiums for workers comp insurance.

These groups say they believe a balance has been reached.

“I believe that this bill before you will set us on a path to be a state that will provide adequate and decent and timely benefits to workers,” said James Andrews of N.C. AFL-CIO

The full House is set consider the bill next week.