April 2, 2009, Introduced by Rep. Johnson 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 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 with respect to that layoff. Except for a period of
disqualification,
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 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 requirements of registration and seeking
work have been waived by the commission pursuant to 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 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 with respect to that layoff. Except for a period of
disqualification,
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
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
requirements of registration and seeking work have been waived by
the commission pursuant to 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, except as provided in subsection
(6), for which the individual is available, 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 that such work is available.
(d) In the event of 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 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 individual has been
determined or redetermined by the commission to be 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 not be ineligible for benefits
because he or she is participating in training 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.
(6) Notwithstanding any other provision of this act, for
benefit years beginning after January 1, 2011, if a majority of the
weeks of work in an individual's base period include part-time
work, an otherwise eligible individual shall not be denied benefits
for any week solely because of 1 or more of the following:
(a) The individual is available only for part-time work.
(b) The individual is seeking only part-time work.
(c) The individual refuses an offer of full-time work.
(7) Subsection (6) does not remove the disqualification for
benefits that applies under section 29(1) if a person voluntarily
leaves part-time work.
(8) For purposes of this section, during an individual's base
period "part-time work" means work that is less than 40 hours in a
calendar week. During an individual's benefit year, "part-time
work" means work that is not less than 16 hours but not more than
40 hours in a calendar week and is comparable in the number of
hours in a calendar week to the number of hours of work in a
majority of calendar weeks of work in the individual's base period.