Read first time 01/22/19.Referred to Committee on Labor & Commerce.
AN ACT Relating to making unemployment benefits accessible to persons with family responsibilities and other availability issues and making clarifying changes; amending RCW 50.20.010, 50.20.080, 50.20.100, 50.20.240, and 50.29.021; reenacting and amending RCW 50.20.050; adding new sections to chapter 50.04 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 50.20 RCW; creating new sections; repealing RCW 50.20.119 and 50.29.020; and providing an effective date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION.Sec. 1. As a result of major demographic shifts, adults' obligations to provide unpaid care to elderly, frail, ill, or disabled family members have sharply increased in the United States over the last two decades. In addition, the increasing unavailability of child care creates a problem for parents with young children. These trends often force employees to choose between providing care to a family member and keeping their job. Under current law, when employees must leave their jobs due to caregiving responsibilities, our unemployment insurance framework does not allow them benefits because employees must be available for all customary hours of their occupation while they search for new, suitable work. In some occupations, an employee must be available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, rendering many employees who are responsible for delivering care ineligible to receive benefits while they search for suitable work. Unemployment insurance was created to ease the burden of involuntary unemployment upon individual employees and the economy as a whole. Our current framework places unnecessary barriers to this insurance benefit in the way of workers, frequently low-wage employees, who must rely on caregiving or provide it themselves, sometimes forcing them to leave the workforce and leaving employers with a smaller labor pool. It is the intent of the legislature to ensure that Washington's unemployment insurance system remains responsive to the needs of employees with caregiving responsibilities in their search for suitable work and helps them remain attached to the workforce.
Sec. 2. RCW 50.20.010 and 2006 c 13 s 10 are each amended to read as follows:
(1) An unemployed ((individual))claimant shall be eligible to receive waiting period credits or benefits with respect to any week in ((his or her))the claimant's eligibility period ((only)) if ((the commissioner finds that)):
(a) ((He or she))The claimant has registered for work at, and thereafter has continued to report at, an employment office in accordance with such regulation as the commissioner may prescribe, except that the commissioner may by regulation waive or alter either or both of the requirements of this ((subdivision))subsection as to ((individuals))claimants attached to regular jobs and as to such other types of cases or situations with respect to which the commissioner finds that the compliance with such requirements would be oppressive, or would be inconsistent with the purposes of this title;
(b) ((He or she))The claimant has filed an application for an initial determination and made a claim for waiting period credit or for benefits in accordance with the provisions of this title;
(c) ((He or she))(i) The claimant is able to work, and is available ((for))to accept suitable work ((in any trade, occupation, profession, or business for which he or she is reasonably fitted.
(i) With respect to claims that have an effective date before January 4, 2004, to be available for work an individual must be ready, able, and willing, immediately to accept any suitable work which may be offered to him or her and must be actively seeking work pursuant to customary trade practices and through other methods when so directed by the commissioner or the commissioner's agents.
(ii) With respect to claims that have an effective date on or after January 4, 2004,))as defined in RCW 50.20.100.
(ii) To be available for work ((an individual))a claimant must:
(A) For at least as many hours per week as the claimant's typical workweek hours, be ready, able, and willing((, immediately)) to accept any suitable work which may be offered ((to him or her))with reasonable notice from the employer; and ((must))
(B) Be actively seeking work pursuant to customary trade practices and through other methods when so directed by the commissioner or the commissioner's agents. If a labor agreement or dispatch rules apply, customary trade practices must be in accordance with the applicable agreement or rules;
(d) ((He or she))The claimant has been unemployed for a waiting period of one week;
(e) ((He or she))The claimant participates in reemployment services if the ((individual))claimant has been referred to reemployment services pursuant to the profiling system established by the commissioner under RCW 50.20.011, unless the commissioner determines that:
(i) The ((individual))claimant has completed such services; or
(ii) There is justifiable cause for the claimant's failure to participate in such services; and
(f) ((As to weeks beginning after March 31, 1981, which))For weeks that fall within an extended benefit period as defined in RCW 50.22.010, the ((individual))claimant meets the terms and conditions of RCW 50.22.020 with respect to benefits claimed in excess of twenty-six times the ((individual's))claimant's weekly benefit amount.
(2) ((An individual's))A claimant's eligibility period for regular benefits shall be coincident to his or her established benefit year. ((An individual's))A claimant's eligibility period for additional or extended benefits shall be the periods prescribed elsewhere in this title for such benefits.
Sec. 3. RCW 50.20.050 and 2009 c 493 s 3 and 2009 c 247 s 1 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:
(1) ((With respect to claims that have an effective date on or after January 4, 2004, and for separations that occur before September 6, 2009:
(a) An individual shall be disqualified from benefits beginning with the first day of the calendar week in which he or she has left work voluntarily without good cause and thereafter for seven calendar weeks and until he or she has obtained bona fide work in employment covered by this title and earned wages in that employment equal to seven times his or her weekly benefit amount.
The disqualification shall continue if the work obtained is a mere sham to qualify for benefits and is not bona fide work. In determining whether work is of a bona fide nature, the commissioner shall consider factors including but not limited to the following:
(i) The duration of the work;
(ii) The extent of direction and control by the employer over the work; and
(iii) The level of skill required for the work in light of the individual's training and experience.
(b) An individual is not disqualified from benefits under (a) of this subsection when:
(i) He or she has left work to accept a bona fide offer of bona fide work as described in (a) of this subsection;
(ii) The separation was necessary because of the illness or disability of the claimant or the death, illness, or disability of a member of the claimant's immediate family if:
(A) The claimant pursued all reasonable alternatives to preserve his or her employment status by requesting a leave of absence, by having promptly notified the employer of the reason for the absence, and by having promptly requested reemployment when again able to assume employment. These alternatives need not be pursued, however, when they would have been a futile act, including those instances when the futility of the act was a result of a recognized labor/management dispatch system; and
(B) The claimant terminated his or her employment status, and is not entitled to be reinstated to the same position or a comparable or similar position;
(iii)(A) With respect to claims that have an effective date before July 2, 2006, he or she: (I) Left work to relocate for the spouse's employment that, due to a mandatory military transfer: (1) Is outside the existing labor market area; and (2) is in Washington or another state that, pursuant to statute, does not consider such an individual to have left work voluntarily without good cause; and (II) remained employed as long as was reasonable prior to the move;
(B) With respect to claims that have an effective date on or after July 2, 2006, he or she: (I) Left work to relocate for the spouse's employment that, due to a mandatory military transfer, is outside the existing labor market area; and (II) remained employed as long as was reasonable prior to the move;
(iv) The separation was necessary to protect the claimant or the claimant's immediate family members from domestic violence, as defined in RCW 26.50.010, or stalking, as defined in RCW 9A.46.110;
(v) The individual's usual compensation was reduced by twenty-five percent or more;
(vi) The individual's usual hours were reduced by twenty-five percent or more;
(vii) The individual's worksite changed, such change caused a material increase in distance or difficulty of travel, and, after the change, the commute was greater than is customary for workers in the individual's job classification and labor market;
(viii) The individual's worksite safety deteriorated, the individual reported such safety deterioration to the employer, and the employer failed to correct the hazards within a reasonable period of time;
(ix) The individual left work because of illegal activities in the individual's worksite, the individual reported such activities to the employer, and the employer failed to end such activities within a reasonable period of time;
(x) The individual's usual work was changed to work that violates the individual's religious convictions or sincere moral beliefs; or
(xi) The individual left work to enter an apprenticeship program approved by the Washington state apprenticeship training council. Benefits are payable beginning Sunday of the week prior to the week in which the individual begins active participation in the apprenticeship program.
(2) With respect to separations that occur on or after September 6, 2009:
(a) An individual))A claimant shall be disqualified from benefits beginning with the first day of the calendar week in which ((he or she has))the claimant left work voluntarily without good cause and thereafter for seven calendar weeks and until ((he or she has obtained))the claimant obtains bona fide work in employment covered by this title and earned wages in that employment equal to seven times his or her weekly benefit amount. Good cause reasons to leave work are limited to reasons listed in (((b) of this)) subsection (2) of this section.
The disqualification shall continue if the work obtained is a mere sham to qualify for benefits and is not bona fide work. In determining whether work is of a bona fide nature, the commissioner shall consider factors including but not limited to the following: