Bill Text: MI HB5660 | 2009-2010 | 95th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Employment security; benefits; waiver of certain requirements for unemployment benefit eligibility; expand to include individuals participating as volunteer income tax assistants. Amends sec. 28 of 1936 (Ex Sess) PA 1 (MCL 421.28).

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-12-09 - Printed Bill Filed 12/09/2009 [HB5660 Detail]

Download: Michigan-2009-HB5660-Introduced.html

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HOUSE BILL No. 5660

 

December 8, 2009, Introduced by Reps. Scripps, Tlaib, Warren, Leland and Dean and referred to the Committee on Labor.

 

     A bill to amend 1936 (Ex Sess) PA 1, entitled

 

"Michigan employment security act,"

 

by amending section 28 (MCL 421.28), as amended by 1994 PA 422.

 

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:

 

     Sec. 28. (1) An unemployed individual shall be is eligible to

 

receive benefits with respect to any week only if the commission

 

finds that:

 

     (a) For benefit years established before the conversion date

 

prescribed in section 75 October 1, 2000, the individual has

 

registered for work at and thereafter has continued to report at an

 

employment office in accordance with such the rules as that the

 

commission may prescribe prescribes and is seeking work. The

 

requirements that the individual must report at an employment

 

office, must register for work, must be available to perform

 

suitable full-time work, and must seek work may be waived by the

 

commission if the individual is laid off and the employer who laid

 

the individual off notifies the commission in writing or by

 

computerized data exchange that the layoff is temporary and that

 

work is expected to be available for the individual within a

 

declared number of days, not to exceed 45 calendar days following

 

the last day the individual worked. This waiver shall not be is not

 

effective unless the commission receives notification from the

 

employer has been received by the commission before the individual

 

has completed his or her first compensable week following layoff.

 

If the individual is not recalled within the specified period, the

 

waiver shall cease to be operative operate with respect to that

 

layoff. Except for a period of disqualification, the commission may

 

waive the requirement that the individual shall seek work may be

 

waived by the commission where if it finds that suitable work is

 

unavailable both in the locality where the individual resides and

 

in those localities in which the individual has earned base period

 

credit weeks. This waiver shall does not apply , for weeks of

 

unemployment beginning on or after March 1, 1981, to a claimant

 

enrolled in and attending classes as a full-time student. An

 

individual shall have has satisfied the requirement of personal

 

reporting at an employment office, as applied to a week in a period

 

during which the commission has waived the requirements of

 

registration and seeking work have been waived by the commission

 

pursuant to under this subdivision, if the individual has satisfied

 

the personal reporting requirement with respect to a preceding week

 

in that period and the individual has reported with respect to the

 

week by mail in accordance with the rules promulgated by the

 

commission. For benefit years established after the conversion date

 

prescribed in section 75 on or after October 1, 2000, the

 

individual has registered for work and has continued to report in

 

accordance with such the rules as the commission may prescribe

 

prescribes and is seeking work. The requirements that the

 

individual must report, must register for work, must be available

 

to perform suitable full-time work, and must seek work may be

 

waived by the commission if the individual is laid off and the

 

employer who laid the individual off notifies the commission in

 

writing or by computerized data exchange that the layoff is

 

temporary and that work is expected to be available for the

 

individual within a declared number of days, not to exceed 45

 

calendar days following the last day the individual worked. This

 

waiver shall not be is not effective unless the commission receives

 

the notification from the employer has been received by the

 

commission before the individual has completed his or her first

 

compensable week following layoff. If the individual is not

 

recalled within the specified period, the waiver shall cease to be

 

operative operate with respect to that layoff. Except for a period

 

of disqualification, the commission may waive the requirement that

 

the individual shall seek work may be waived by the commission

 

where if it finds that suitable work is unavailable both in the

 

locality where the individual resides and in those localities in

 

which the individual has earned wages during or after the base

 

period. This waiver shall does not apply to a claimant enrolled in

 

and attending classes as a full-time student. An individual shall

 

be is considered to have satisfied the requirement of personal

 

reporting at an employment office, as applied to a week in a period

 

during which the commission has waived the requirements of

 

registration and seeking work have been waived by the commission

 

pursuant to under this subdivision, if the individual has satisfied

 

the personal reporting requirement with respect to a preceding week

 

in that period and the individual has reported with respect to the

 

week by mail in accordance with the rules promulgated by the

 

commission.

 

     (b) The individual has made a claim for benefits in accordance

 

with section 32 and has provided the commission with his or her

 

social security number.

 

     (c) The individual is able and available to perform suitable

 

full-time work of a character which that the individual is

 

qualified to perform by past experience or training, which is of a

 

character generally similar to work for which the individual has

 

previously received wages, and for which the individual is

 

available, full time full-time, either at a locality at which the

 

individual earned wages for insured work during his or her base

 

period or at a locality where it is found by the commission finds

 

that such suitable work is available.

 

     (d) In the event of After the death of an individual's

 

immediate family member, the eligibility requirements of

 

availability and reporting shall be waived for the day of the death

 

and for 4 consecutive calendar days thereafter. As used in this

 

subdivision, "immediate family member" means a spouse, child,

 

stepchild, adopted child, grandchild, parent, grandparent, brother,

 

or sister of the individual or his or her spouse. It shall also

 

include includes the spouse of any of the persons specified in the

 

previous sentence.

 

     (e) The individual participates in reemployment services, such

 

as job search assistance services, if the commission determines or

 

redetermines that the individual has been determined or

 

redetermined by the commission to be is likely to exhaust regular

 

benefits and need reemployment services pursuant to a profiling

 

system established by the commission.

 

     (2) The commission may authorize an individual with an

 

unexpired benefit year to pursue vocational training or retraining

 

only if the commission finds that:

 

     (a) Reasonable opportunities for employment in occupations for

 

which the individual is fitted by training and experience do not

 

exist in the locality in which the individual is claiming benefits.

 

     (b) The vocational training course relates to an occupation or

 

skill for which there are, or are expected to be in the immediate

 

future, reasonable employment opportunities.

 

     (c) The training course has been approved by a local advisory

 

council on which both management and labor are represented, or if

 

there is no local advisory council, by the commission.

 

     (d) The individual has the required qualifications and

 

aptitudes to complete the course successfully.

 

     (e) The vocational training course has been approved by the

 

state board of education and is maintained by a public or private

 

school or by the commission.

 

     (3) Notwithstanding any other provision of this act, an

 

otherwise eligible individual shall is not be ineligible for

 

benefits because he or she is participating in training, or

 

receiving training by participating 20 hours per week or more as a

 

volunteer in the internal revenue service volunteer income tax

 

assistance program, with the approval of the commission. For each

 

week that the commission finds that an individual who is claiming

 

benefits under this act and who is participating in training with

 

the approval of the commission, is satisfactorily pursuing an

 

approved course of vocational training, it shall waive the

 

requirements that he or she be available for work and be seeking

 

work as prescribed in subsection (1)(a) and (c), and it shall find

 

good cause for his or her failure to apply for suitable work,

 

report to a former employer for an interview concerning suitable

 

work, or accept suitable work as required in section 29(1)(c), (d),

 

and (e).

 

     (4) The waiver of the requirement that a claimant seek work,

 

as provided in subsection (1)(a), shall not be applicable does not

 

apply to weeks of unemployment for which the claimant is claiming

 

extended benefits if section 64(8)(a)(ii) 64(7)(a)(ii) is in effect,

 

unless the individual is participating in training approved by the

 

commission.

 

     (5) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this act, an

 

otherwise eligible individual shall not be denied benefits for any

 

week beginning after October 30, 1982 solely because the individual

 

is in training approved under section 236(a)(1) of the trade act of

 

1974, as amended, 19 U.S.C. USC 2296, nor shall the individual be

 

denied benefits by reason of leaving work to enter such that

 

training if the work left is not suitable employment. Furthermore,

 

an otherwise eligible individual shall not be denied benefits

 

because of the application to any such week in training of

 

provisions of this act, or any applicable federal unemployment

 

compensation law, relating to availability for work, active search

 

for work, or refusal to accept work. For purposes of this

 

subsection, "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 purposes of the trade act of 1974, 19 U.S.C. USC 2101

 

to 2495, and wages for that work at not less than 80% of the

 

individual's average weekly wage as determined for the purposes of

 

the trade act of 1974.