John Charles Brooks (born January 10, 1937) is an American attorney who served as North Carolina Commissioner of Labor from 1977 to 1993.
He graduated from Greenville High School earned a degree in political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He adopted a blood-borne pathogens standard and regulations designed to curb abuses in the temporary employment agency industry.
After the 1991 fire, Brooks adopted the North Carolina Building Code as an OSHA standard, which would have allowed the citation of locked exterior doors.
Brooks placed second in the May 2008 primary, but because no candidate garnered more than 40 percent of the vote, he was allowed to call for a runoff on June 24, with first-place finisher Mary Fant Donnan.
He won the May 8 Democratic primary but because he failed to garner 40 percent of the vote, he faced a runoff with runner-up Marlowe Foster.