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H. B. No. 55 As IntroducedAs Introduced
130th General Assembly | Regular Session | 2013-2014 |
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Representatives Pillich, Terhar
Cosponsors:
Representatives Ramos, Antonio, Hagan, R., O'Brien, Cera, Strahorn, Phillips, Reece, Fedor, Clyde, Lundy, Gerberry, Ashford, Buchy, Duffey
A BILL
To amend section 4141.29 of the Revised Code to
permit persons who quit work to accompany the
person's spouse on a military transfer to be
eligible for unemployment compensation benefits.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section 1. That section 4141.29 of the Revised Code be
amended to read as follows:
Sec. 4141.29. Each eligible individual shall receive
benefits as compensation for loss of remuneration due to
involuntary total or partial unemployment in the amounts and
subject to the conditions stipulated in this chapter.
(A) No individual is entitled to a waiting period or benefits
for any week unless the individual:
(1) Has filed a valid application for determination of
benefit rights in accordance with section 4141.28 of the Revised
Code;
(2) Has made a claim for benefits in accordance with section
4141.28 of the Revised Code;
(3) Has registered at an employment office or other
registration place maintained or designated by the director of job
and family services. Registration shall be made in accordance with
the time limits, frequency, and manner prescribed by the director.
(4)(a)(i) Is able to work and available for suitable work
and, except as provided in division (A)(4)(a)(ii) of this section,
is actively seeking suitable work either in a locality in which
the individual has earned wages subject to this chapter during the
individual's base period, or if the individual leaves that
locality, then in a locality where suitable work normally is
performed.
(ii) The director may waive the requirement that a claimant
be actively seeking work when the director finds that the
individual has been laid off and the employer who laid the
individual off has notified the director within ten days after the
layoff, that work is expected to be available for the individual
within a specified number of days not to exceed forty-five
calendar days following the last day the individual worked. In the
event the individual is not recalled within the specified period,
this waiver shall cease to be operative with respect to that
layoff.
(b) The individual shall be instructed as to the efforts that
the individual must make in the search for suitable work, except
where the active search for work requirement has been waived under
division (A)(4)(a) of this section, and shall keep a record of
where and when the individual has sought work in complying with
those instructions and, upon request, shall produce that record
for examination by the director.
(c) An individual who is attending a training course approved
by the director meets the requirement of this division, if
attendance was recommended by the director and the individual is
regularly attending the course and is making satisfactory
progress. An individual also meets the requirements of this
division if the individual is participating and advancing in a
training program, as defined in division (P) of section 5709.61 of
the Revised Code, and if an enterprise, defined in division (B) of
section 5709.61 of the Revised Code, is paying all or part of the
cost of the individual's participation in the training program
with the intention of hiring the individual for employment as a
new employee, as defined in division (L) of section 5709.61 of the
Revised Code, for at least ninety days after the individual's
completion of the training program.
(d) An individual who becomes unemployed while attending a
regularly established school and whose base period qualifying
weeks were earned in whole or in part while attending that school,
meets the availability and active search for work requirements of
division (A)(4)(a) of this section if the individual regularly
attends the school during weeks with respect to which the
individual claims unemployment benefits and makes self available
on any shift of hours for suitable employment with the
individual's most recent employer or any other employer in the
individual's base period, or for any other suitable employment to
which the individual is directed, under this chapter.
(e) The director shall adopt any rules that the director
deems necessary for the administration of division (A)(4) of this
section.
(f) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, no
otherwise eligible individual shall be denied benefits for any
week because the individual is in training approved under section
236(a)(1) of the "Trade Act of 1974," 88 Stat. 1978, 19 U.S.C.A.
2296, nor shall that individual be denied benefits by reason of
leaving work to enter such training, provided the work left is not
suitable employment, or because of the application to any week in
training of provisions in this chapter, or any applicable federal
unemployment compensation law, relating to availability for work,
active search for work, or refusal to accept work.
For the purposes of division (A)(4)(f) of this section,
"suitable employment" means with respect to an individual, work of
a substantially equal or higher skill level than the individual's
past adversely affected employment, as defined for the purposes of
the "Trade Act of 1974," 88 Stat. 1978, 19 U.S.C.A. 2101, and
wages for such work at not less than eighty per cent of the
individual's average weekly wage as determined for the purposes of
that federal act.
(5) Is unable to obtain suitable work. An individual who is
provided temporary work assignments by the individual's employer
under agreed terms and conditions of employment, and who is
required pursuant to those terms and conditions to inquire with
the individual's employer for available work assignments upon the
conclusion of each work assignment, is not considered unable to
obtain suitable employment if suitable work assignments are
available with the employer but the individual fails to contact
the employer to inquire about work assignments.
(6) Participates in reemployment services, such as job search
assistance services, if the individual has been determined to be
likely to exhaust benefits under this chapter, including
compensation payable pursuant to 5 U.S.C.A. Chapter 85, other than
extended compensation, and needs reemployment services pursuant to
the profiling system established by the director under division
(K) of this section, unless the director determines that:
(a) The individual has completed such services; or
(b) There is justifiable cause for the claimant's failure to
participate in such services.
(B) An individual suffering total or partial unemployment is
eligible for benefits for unemployment occurring subsequent to a
waiting period of one week and no benefits shall be payable during
this required waiting period. Not more than one week of waiting
period shall be required of any individual in any benefit year in
order to establish the individual's eligibility for total or
partial unemployment benefits.
(C) The waiting period for total or partial unemployment
shall commence on the first day of the first week with respect to
which the individual first files a claim for benefits at an
employment office or other place of registration maintained or
designated by the director or on the first day of the first week
with respect to which the individual has otherwise filed a claim
for benefits in accordance with the rules of the department of job
and family services, provided such claim is allowed by the
director.
(D) Notwithstanding division (A) of this section, no
individual may serve a waiting period or be paid benefits under
the following conditions:
(1) For any week with respect to which the director finds
that:
(a) The individual's unemployment was due to a labor dispute
other than a lockout at any factory, establishment, or other
premises located in this or any other state and owned or operated
by the employer by which the individual is or was last employed;
and for so long as the individual's unemployment is due to such
labor dispute. No individual shall be disqualified under this
provision if either of the following applies:
(i) The individual's employment was with such employer at any
factory, establishment, or premises located in this state, owned
or operated by such employer, other than the factory,
establishment, or premises at which the labor dispute exists, if
it is shown that the individual is not financing, participating
in, or directly interested in such labor dispute;
(ii) The individual's employment was with an employer not
involved in the labor dispute but whose place of business was
located within the same premises as the employer engaged in the
dispute, unless the individual's employer is a wholly owned
subsidiary of the employer engaged in the dispute, or unless the
individual actively participates in or voluntarily stops work
because of such dispute. If it is established that the claimant
was laid off for an indefinite period and not recalled to work
prior to the dispute, or was separated by the employer prior to
the dispute for reasons other than the labor dispute, or that the
individual obtained a bona fide job with another employer while
the dispute was still in progress, such labor dispute shall not
render the employee ineligible for benefits.
(b) The individual has been given a disciplinary layoff for
misconduct in connection with the individual's work.
(2) For the duration of the individual's unemployment if the
director finds that:
(a) The individual quit work without just cause or has been
discharged for just cause in connection with the individual's
work, provided division (D)(2) of this section does not apply to
the separation of a person under any of the following
circumstances:
(i) Separation from employment for the purpose of entering
the armed forces of the United States if the individual is
inducted into the armed forces within one of the following
periods:
(I) Thirty days after separation;
(II) One hundred eighty days after separation if the
individual's date of induction is delayed solely at the discretion
of the armed forces.
(ii) Separation from employment pursuant to a
labor-management contract or agreement, or pursuant to an
established employer plan, program, or policy, which permits the
employee, because of lack of work, to accept a separation from
employment;
(iii) The individual has left employment to accept a recall
from a prior employer or, except as provided in division
(D)(2)(a)(iv) of this section, to accept other employment as
provided under section 4141.291 of the Revised Code, or left or
was separated from employment that was concurrent employment at
the time of the most recent separation or within six weeks prior
to the most recent separation where the remuneration, hours, or
other conditions of such concurrent employment were substantially
less favorable than the individual's most recent employment and
where such employment, if offered as new work, would be considered
not suitable under the provisions of divisions (E) and (F) of this
section. Any benefits that would otherwise be chargeable to the
account of the employer from whom an individual has left
employment or was separated from employment that was concurrent
employment under conditions described in division (D)(2)(a)(iii)
of this section, shall instead be charged to the mutualized
account created by division (B) of section 4141.25 of the Revised
Code, except that any benefits chargeable to the account of a
reimbursing employer under division (D)(2)(a)(iii) of this section
shall be charged to the account of the reimbursing employer and
not to the mutualized account, except as provided in division
(D)(2) of section 4141.24 of the Revised Code.
(iv) When an individual has been issued a definite layoff
date by the individual's employer and before the layoff date, the
individual quits to accept other employment, the provisions of
division (D)(2)(a)(iii) of this section apply and no
disqualification shall be imposed under division (D) of this
section. However, if the individual fails to meet the employment
and earnings requirements of division (A)(2) of section 4141.291
of the Revised Code, then the individual, pursuant to division
(A)(5) of this section, shall be ineligible for benefits for any
week of unemployment that occurs prior to the layoff date.
(v) The individual's spouse is a member of the armed services
of the United States, the spouse is the subject of a military
transfer, and the individual left employment to accompany the
individual's spouse.
(b) The individual has refused without good cause to accept
an offer of suitable work when made by an employer either in
person or to the individual's last known address, or has refused
or failed to investigate a referral to suitable work when directed
to do so by a local employment office of this state or another
state, provided that this division shall not cause a
disqualification for a waiting week or benefits under the
following circumstances:
(i) When work is offered by the individual's employer and the
individual is not required to accept the offer pursuant to the
terms of the labor-management contract or agreement; or
(ii) When the individual is attending a training course
pursuant to division (A)(4) of this section except, in the event
of a refusal to accept an offer of suitable work or a refusal or
failure to investigate a referral, benefits thereafter paid to
such individual shall not be charged to the account of any
employer and, except as provided in division (B)(1)(b) of section
4141.241 of the Revised Code, shall be charged to the mutualized
account as provided in division (B) of section 4141.25 of the
Revised Code.
(c) Such individual quit work to marry or because of marital,
parental, filial, or other domestic obligations.
(d) The individual became unemployed by reason of commitment
to any correctional institution.
(e) The individual became unemployed because of dishonesty in
connection with the individual's most recent or any base period
work. Remuneration earned in such work shall be excluded from the
individual's total base period remuneration and qualifying weeks
that otherwise would be credited to the individual for such work
in the individual's base period shall not be credited for the
purpose of determining the total benefits to which the individual
is eligible and the weekly benefit amount to be paid under section
4141.30 of the Revised Code. Such excluded remuneration and
noncredited qualifying weeks shall be excluded from the
calculation of the maximum amount to be charged, under division
(D) of section 4141.24 and section 4141.33 of the Revised Code,
against the accounts of the individual's base period employers. In
addition, no benefits shall thereafter be paid to the individual
based upon such excluded remuneration or noncredited qualifying
weeks.
For purposes of division (D)(2)(e) of this section,
"dishonesty" means the commission of substantive theft, fraud, or
deceitful acts.
(E) No individual otherwise qualified to receive benefits
shall lose the right to benefits by reason of a refusal to accept
new work if:
(1) As a condition of being so employed the individual would
be required to join a company union, or to resign from or refrain
from joining any bona fide labor organization, or would be denied
the right to retain membership in and observe the lawful rules of
any such organization.
(2) The position offered is vacant due directly to a strike,
lockout, or other labor dispute.
(3) The work is at an unreasonable distance from the
individual's residence, having regard to the character of the work
the individual has been accustomed to do, and travel to the place
of work involves expenses substantially greater than that required
for the individual's former work, unless the expense is provided
for.
(4) The remuneration, hours, or other conditions of the work
offered are substantially less favorable to the individual than
those prevailing for similar work in the locality.
(F) Subject to the special exceptions contained in division
(A)(4)(f) of this section and section 4141.301 of the Revised
Code, in determining whether any work is suitable for a claimant
in the administration of this chapter, the director, in addition
to the determination required under division (E) of this section,
shall consider the degree of risk to the claimant's health,
safety, and morals, the individual's physical fitness for the
work, the individual's prior training and experience, the length
of the individual's unemployment, the distance of the available
work from the individual's residence, and the individual's
prospects for obtaining local work.
(G) The "duration of unemployment" as used in this section
means the full period of unemployment next ensuing after a
separation from any base period or subsequent work and until an
individual has become reemployed in employment subject to this
chapter, or the unemployment compensation act of another state, or
of the United States, and until such individual has worked six
weeks and for those weeks has earned or been paid remuneration
equal to six times an average weekly wage of not less than:
eighty-five dollars and ten cents per week beginning on June 26,
1990; and beginning on and after January 1, 1992, twenty-seven and
one-half per cent of the statewide average weekly wage as computed
each first day of January under division (B)(3) of section 4141.30
of the Revised Code, rounded down to the nearest dollar, except
for purposes of division (D)(2)(c) of this section, such term
means the full period of unemployment next ensuing after a
separation from such work and until such individual has become
reemployed subject to the terms set forth above, and has earned
wages equal to one-half of the individual's average weekly wage or
sixty dollars, whichever is less.
(H) If a claimant is disqualified under division (D)(2)(a),
(c), or (d) of this section or found to be qualified under the
exceptions provided in division (D)(2)(a)(i), (iii), or (iv), or
(v) of this section or division (A)(2) of section 4141.291 of the
Revised Code, then benefits that may become payable to such
claimant, which are chargeable to the account of the employer from
whom the individual was separated under such conditions, shall be
charged to the mutualized account provided in section 4141.25 of
the Revised Code, provided that no charge shall be made to the
mutualized account for benefits chargeable to a reimbursing
employer, except as provided in division (D)(2) of section 4141.24
of the Revised Code. In the case of a reimbursing employer, the
director shall refund or credit to the account of the reimbursing
employer any over-paid benefits that are recovered under division
(B) of section 4141.35 of the Revised Code. Amounts chargeable to
other states, the United States, or Canada that are subject to
agreements and arrangements that are established pursuant to
section 4141.43 of the Revised Code shall be credited or
reimbursed according to the agreements and arrangements to which
the chargeable amounts are subject.
(I)(1) Benefits based on service in employment as provided in
divisions (B)(2)(a) and (b) of section 4141.01 of the Revised Code
shall be payable in the same amount, on the same terms, and
subject to the same conditions as benefits payable on the basis of
other service subject to this chapter; except that after December
31, 1977:
(a) Benefits based on service in an instructional, research,
or principal administrative capacity in an institution of higher
education, as defined in division (Y) of section 4141.01 of the
Revised Code; or for an educational institution as defined in
division (CC) of section 4141.01 of the Revised Code, shall not be
paid to any individual for any week of unemployment that begins
during the period between two successive academic years or terms,
or during a similar period between two regular but not successive
terms or during a period of paid sabbatical leave provided for in
the individual's contract, if the individual performs such
services in the first of those academic years or terms and has a
contract or a reasonable assurance that the individual will
perform services in any such capacity for any such institution in
the second of those academic years or terms.
(b) Benefits based on service for an educational institution
or an institution of higher education in other than an
instructional, research, or principal administrative capacity,
shall not be paid to any individual for any week of unemployment
which begins during the period between two successive academic
years or terms of the employing educational institution or
institution of higher education, provided the individual performed
those services for the educational institution or institution of
higher education during the first such academic year or term and,
there is a reasonable assurance that such individual will perform
those services for any educational institution or institution of
higher education in the second of such academic years or terms.
If compensation is denied to any individual for any week
under division (I)(1)(b) of this section and the individual was
not offered an opportunity to perform those services for an
institution of higher education or for an educational institution
for the second of such academic years or terms, the individual is
entitled to a retroactive payment of compensation for each week
for which the individual timely filed a claim for compensation and
for which compensation was denied solely by reason of division
(I)(1)(b) of this section. An application for retroactive benefits
shall be timely filed if received by the director or the
director's deputy within or prior to the end of the fourth full
calendar week after the end of the period for which benefits were
denied because of reasonable assurance of employment. The
provision for the payment of retroactive benefits under division
(I)(1)(b) of this section is applicable to weeks of unemployment
beginning on and after November 18, 1983. The provisions under
division (I)(1)(b) of this section shall be retroactive to
September 5, 1982, only if, as a condition for full tax credit
against the tax imposed by the "Federal Unemployment Tax Act," 53
Stat. 183 (1939), 26 U.S.C.A. 3301 to 3311, the United States
secretary of labor determines that retroactivity is required by
federal law.
(c) With respect to weeks of unemployment beginning after
December 31, 1977, benefits shall be denied to any individual for
any week which commences during an established and customary
vacation period or holiday recess, if the individual performs any
services described in divisions (I)(1)(a) and (b) of this section
in the period immediately before the vacation period or holiday
recess, and there is a reasonable assurance that the individual
will perform any such services in the period immediately following
the vacation period or holiday recess.
(d) With respect to any services described in division
(I)(1)(a), (b), or (c) of this section, benefits payable on the
basis of services in any such capacity shall be denied as
specified in division (I)(1)(a), (b), or (c) of this section to
any individual who performs such services in an educational
institution or institution of higher education while in the employ
of an educational service agency. For this purpose, the term
"educational service agency" means a governmental agency or
governmental entity that is established and operated exclusively
for the purpose of providing services to one or more educational
institutions or one or more institutions of higher education.
(e) Any individual employed by a county board of
developmental disabilities shall be notified by the thirtieth day
of April each year if the individual is not to be reemployed the
following academic year.
(f) Any individual employed by a school district, other than
a municipal school district as defined in section 3311.71 of the
Revised Code, shall be notified by the first day of June each year
if the individual is not to be reemployed the following academic
year.
(2) No disqualification will be imposed, between academic
years or terms or during a vacation period or holiday recess under
this division, unless the director or the director's deputy has
received a statement in writing from the educational institution
or institution of higher education that the claimant has a
contract for, or a reasonable assurance of, reemployment for the
ensuing academic year or term.
(3) If an individual has employment with an educational
institution or an institution of higher education and employment
with a noneducational employer, during the base period of the
individual's benefit year, then the individual may become eligible
for benefits during the between-term, or vacation or holiday
recess, disqualification period, based on employment performed for
the noneducational employer, provided that the employment is
sufficient to qualify the individual for benefit rights separately
from the benefit rights based on school employment. The weekly
benefit amount and maximum benefits payable during a
disqualification period shall be computed based solely on the
nonschool employment.
(J) Benefits shall not be paid on the basis of employment
performed by an alien, unless the alien had been lawfully admitted
to the United States for permanent residence at the time the
services were performed, was lawfully present for purposes of
performing the services, or was otherwise permanently residing in
the United States under color of law at the time the services were
performed, under section 212(d)(5) of the "Immigration and
Nationality Act," 66 Stat. 163, 8 U.S.C.A. 1101:
(1) Any data or information required of individuals applying
for benefits to determine whether benefits are not payable to them
because of their alien status shall be uniformly required from all
applicants for benefits.
(2) In the case of an individual whose application for
benefits would otherwise be approved, no determination that
benefits to the individual are not payable because of the
individual's alien status shall be made except upon a
preponderance of the evidence that the individual had not, in
fact, been lawfully admitted to the United States.
(K) The director shall establish and utilize a system of
profiling all new claimants under this chapter that:
(1) Identifies which claimants will be likely to exhaust
regular compensation and will need job search assistance services
to make a successful transition to new employment;
(2) Refers claimants identified pursuant to division (K)(1)
of this section to reemployment services, such as job search
assistance services, available under any state or federal law;
(3) Collects follow-up information relating to the services
received by such claimants and the employment outcomes for such
claimant's subsequent to receiving such services and utilizes such
information in making identifications pursuant to division (K)(1)
of this section; and
(4) Meets such other requirements as the United States
secretary of labor determines are appropriate.
Section 2. That existing section 4141.29 of the Revised Code
is hereby repealed.
Section 3. Section 4141.29 of the Revised Code is presented
in this act as a composite of the section as amended by both Sub.
H.B. 525 and Am. Sub. S.B. 316 of the 129th General Assembly. The
General Assembly, applying the principle stated in division (B) of
section 1.52 of the Revised Code that amendments are to be
harmonized if reasonably capable of simultaneous operation, finds
that the composite is the resulting version of the section in
effect prior to the effective date of the section as presented in
this act.
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