>Last week the North Carolina General Assembly passed a bill that will require all employers to use the federal E-Verify program with all new hires. The program will phase in over the next several years with the largest employers complying with the requirements by January 1, 2012 and the smallest (those with 25 or more employees) complying by July 1, 2013. There are provisions for seasonal employers to be exempted but only if they employ over the threshold for less than 90 days in a 12 consecutive month period.
 
What does this mean for ginners? The 25 employee threshold is fairly high compared to many other states and many gins don’t have this many employees in the middle of gin season. If you cross that 25 employee threshold but don’t expect to have those employees for 90 days, make sure you keep track of hire and fire dates to make sure you don’t cross that 90 day in a 12 month period. Otherwise it looks like gins as well as all other employers in the state will be using E-Verify in the future.
 
The E-Verify program compliance will phase in over the next 2 yrs with the largest employers, those over 500 employees, beginning October 2021. Those employers with between 100 and 500 employees must comply by January 1, 2013. And those small employers with 25 or more employees must comply by July 1, 2013.
 
More information will follow as we learn more about how the program will be run and implemented. Please call our office if you have any questions.
 
Dusty