Employment
State workers could get a new HR code in North Carolina
State workers would get a new rulebook under SB 1041. The bill would replace the current state human resources code with Chapter 126A and give the state HR office more room to waive or vary rules.
North Carolina lawmakers are weighing a full rewrite of the state human resources code. The bill would replace Chapter 126 with Chapter 126A and give the Office of State Human Resources more flexibility inside the system.
- The bill would replace Chapter 126 with a new Chapter 126A.
- It is titled the Public Workforce Modernization Act.
- The OSHR director could grant exceptions or variances from commission rules.
- The rewrite is meant to make the state HR system more decentralized.
- North Carolina lawmakers are weighing a bill that would wipe away the old state human resources chapter and start over with a new one
North Carolina lawmakers are weighing a bill that would wipe away the old state human resources chapter and start over with a new one. For state workers and the people who manage them, that means the rulebook would not just be patched. It would be recast as Chapter 126A.
The measure is called the Public Workforce Modernization Act, and its stated purpose is to create a decentralized human resources system where appropriate, under the direction of the governor, and without adding cost to the state. In plain terms, the bill is trying to make the state personnel system feel less locked down and more adaptable.
A clean break from Chapter 126
The bill’s most visible change is the one that shows up in the statute itself. Instead of layering more language onto Chapter 126, it would add a new chapter to the General Statutes and give the system a fresh legal home.
That matters because Chapter 126 is not being treated like a house with a few rooms to renovate. The proposal reads like a replacement, with a new structure meant to organize how state human resources rules are written, understood and applied.
The director’s new escape hatch
One of the practical changes sits with the Office of State Human Resources, or OSHR. Under the proposal, the director of OSHR would have authority to grant exceptions or variances from Commission rules or policies.
That gives the state’s human resources chief a built-in way to step around a rule when the standard version does not fit a particular situation. The bill does not just rename the chapter. It gives the system a new center of gravity, with more room for judgment at the top.