Bill Summaries: H419 SAVE NC CALL CENTER JOBS ACT.

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  • Summary date: Mar 20 2019 - View Summary

    Enacts new GS 95-31.1 requiring a call center employer that intends to relocate a call center, or one or more facilities or operating units within a call center comprising at least 30% of the call center's or operating unit's total volume when measured against the previous 12-month average call volume of operations, or substantially similar operations, to outside the state to notify the Commissioner of Labor (Commissioner) at least 120 days before the relocation. Requires the Commissioner to compile a semiannual list of all such relocations and distribute the list to agencies subject to GS Chapter 95. Defines call center employer or employer as any business that employs for the purpose of customer service or back-office operations: (1) 50 or more employees, excluding part-time employees or (2) 50 or more employees who in the aggregate work at least 1,500 hours per week (exclusive of overtime hours). Makes an employer that appears on the Commissioner's list ineligible for any state grants or state-guaranteed loan or tax benefit for five years after the date the list is published. Requires an employer that appears on the list described to remit the unamortized value of any grants, guaranteed loans, tax benefits, or any other governmental support it has previously received to the Commissioner. Allows the Commissioner, in consultation with the appropriate agency providing a loan or grant, to waive the ineligibility requirement if the employer applying for the loan or grant demonstrates that a lack of the loan or grant would result in substantial job loss in this state or would harm the environment.

    Requires the head of each State agency to ensure that all State business-related call center and customer service work performed by state contractors or their agents or subcontractors is conducted entirely within this state; gives state contractors who currently perform such work outside this state two years to comply with this requirement. Requires the call center employer in partnership with the North Carolina Community College System to implement a program for the retraining of affected employees who have become unemployed due to the relocation of a call center outside of the state.

    Provides that the act does not permit withholding or denial of payments, compensation, or benefits under any other State law (including State unemployment compensation, disability payments, or worker retraining or adjustment funds) to workers employed by call center employers that relocate outside the State.

    Includes a severability clause.