North Carolina § 126-18 - Compensation for assisting person in obtaining State employment barred; exception.

§ 126-18. Compensation for assisting person in obtaining State employment barred; exception.

It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to collect, accept or receive any compensation, consideration or thing of value for obtaining on behalf of any other person, or aiding or assisting any other person in obtaining employment with the State of North Carolina; provided, however, any person, firm, or corporation that is duly licensed and supervised by the North Carolina Department of Labor as a private employment service acting in the normal course of business, may collect such regular and customary fees for services rendered pursuant to a written contract when such fees are paid by someone other than the State of North Carolina; however, any person, firm, or corporation collecting fees for this service must have been licensed by the North Carolina Department of Labor for a period of not less than one year. Any person, firm or corporation collecting fees for this service must make a monthly report to the Department of Labor listing the name of the person, firm or corporation collecting fees and the person for whom a job was found, the nature and purpose of the job obtained, and the fee collected by the person, firm or corporation collecting the fee. Violation of this section shall constitute a Class 1 misdemeanor. History (1977, c. 397, s. 1; 1993, c. 539, s. 933; 1994, Ex. Sess., c. 24, s. 14(c).) Opinions of Attorney General Referral Incentive Award Program. - A "Referral Incentive Award" program would not violate this section because it did not allow the referring state employee to receive any sort of compensation from any other source related to the referral and the program did not have any provision in it that would require or allow the State to pay any kind of fee that might be charged by a licensed referral source to the jobhunter. See opinion of Attorney General to Mr. Ronald G. Penny, State Personnel Director, 2000 N.C. AG LEXIS 10 (6/30/2000). State's Use of Personnel Agency to Fill Positions. - This section does not prohibit the State or one of its agencies from utilizing the services of a personnel agency or search firm to find candidates for a difficult-to-recruit position after other efforts to fill the position have failed; however, the statutorily mandated promotional priority for state employees under this section restricts and limits the ability of state agencies to act in this situation. See opinion of Attorney General to Mr. Richard V. Lee, State Personnel Director, 58 N.C.A.G. 91 (1988).