RALEIGH — What would you say if you went in for a job interview and the employer required you to implant a microchip in your body to get the job? Would you still want it?

Well, you won’t have to worry about that if state Sen. Carl Ford’s bill goes through. The “No Forced Microchip Implants for Employees,”  Senate Bill 605, states:

• An employer shall not ask or inquire on an application if a prospective employee will consent to having a microchip implanted in their body nor will the employer be able to require or an implantation as a condition of employment.
• An employer cannot coerce, create a hostile work environment, withhold advancment or a wage increase or dismiss an employee who does not consent.
• A microchip can be implanted only if the employee gives written consent, but the employer must pay all costs associated with implanting and removing the chip, pay all medical costs if there is any injury caused by implantaion and disclose to the employee the data that is kept and how it will be used.
• If an employee consents and get fired by the company then the employer must have the microchip removed within 30 days of termination, but you can elect to keep the implanted microchip if you want. You would just assume responsibilty of all the costs associated.

Microchips are usually implanted in the webbing between a person’s index finger and thumb and is the size of a grain of rice.

While nowhere in the current bill states this, Ford said the priority is to make sure that no government employees are forced to be microchipped by state agencies.

“We’re just making sure that no state or government employee is forced to do that ever,” Ford said. “All the private employers I’ve heard from, and there’s been quite a few, said they had no intentions of ever doing it to begin with. Nobody in our area has even come close to talking about it. But, there have been some government agencies talking about it, even in North Carolina, so we just want to make sure it doesn’t happen.”

He said the bill probably won’t be passed this session, but he and the other main sponsors, Sens. Ted Alexander and Timothy Moffitt, wanted to let people know about it.

“I think just us talking about it and introducing the bill has at least put the brakes on it for now,” Ford said.

So far, 10 other states have enacted similar legislation: Arkansas, California, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah and Wisconsin.