August 4, 2009, Introduced by Rep. Green and referred to the Committee on Labor.
A bill to amend 1936 (Ex Sess) PA 1, entitled
"Michigan employment security act,"
by amending section 46 (MCL 421.46), as amended by 1995 PA 25.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec.
46. (a) Subject to subsections (d) through (g) (f),
for
benefit
years beginning before the conversion date prescribed in
section
75 October 1, 2000, "benefit year" means the period of 52
consecutive calendar weeks beginning the first calendar week in
which an individual files a claim in accordance with section 32 and
meets all of the following conditions:
(1) The individual has earned 20 credit weeks in the 52
consecutive calendar weeks before the week he or she files the
claim for benefits.
(2) The individual is unemployed and meets all requirements of
section 28 for the week for which he or she files a claim for
benefits.
(3)
Except for a disqualification under section 29 (8) 29(8)
involving a labor dispute during the individual's most recent
period of employment with the most recent employer with whom the
individual earned a credit week, the individual is not disqualified
or subject to disqualification for the week for which he or she
files a claim.
(4) The individual does not have a benefit year already in
effect at the time of the claim.
(b)
For benefit years beginning after the conversion date
prescribed
in section 75 on or after October 1, 2000, "benefit
year" means the period of 52 consecutive calendar weeks beginning
the first calendar week in which an individual files a claim in
accordance with section 32. However, a benefit year shall not be
established unless the individual meets either of the following
conditions:
(1) the
(i) The total wages paid to the individual in the base period
of the claim equals not less than 1.5 times the wages paid to the
individual in the calendar quarter of the base period in which the
individual
was paid the highest wages. , or (2) the
(ii) The individual was paid wages in 2 or more calendar
quarters of the base period totaling at least 20 times the state
average weekly wage as determined by the commission.
(c)
For benefit years beginning after the conversion date
prescribed
in section 75 October 1, 2000, the state average weekly
wage for a calendar year shall be computed on the basis of the 12
months ending the June 30 preceding that calendar year. A benefit
year shall not be established if the individual was not paid wages
of at least the state minimum hourly wage multiplied by 388.06
rounded down to the nearest dollar in at least 1 calendar quarter
of the base period. A benefit year shall not be established based
on base period wages previously used to establish a benefit year
that resulted in the payment of benefits. However, if a calendar
quarter of the base period contains wages that were previously used
to establish a benefit year that resulted in the payment of
benefits, a claimant may establish a benefit year using the wages
in the remaining calendar quarters from among the first 4 of the
last 5 completed calendar quarters, or if a benefit year cannot be
established using those quarters, then by using wages from among
the last 4 completed calendar quarters. A benefit year shall not be
established unless, after the beginning of the immediately
preceding benefit year during which the individual received
benefits, the individual worked and received remuneration in an
amount equal to at least 5 times the individual's most recent state
weekly benefit rate in effect during the individual's immediately
preceding benefit year. If a quarterly wage report has not been
submitted in a timely manner by the employer as provided in section
13 for any of the quarters of the base period, or if wage
information is not available for use by the commission for the most
recent completed calendar quarter, the commission may obtain and
use the claimant's statement of wages paid during the calendar
quarters for which the wage reports are missing to establish a
benefit year. A determination based on the claimant's statement of
wages paid during any of these calendar quarters shall be
redetermined if the quarterly wage report from the employer is
later received and would result in a change in the claimant's
weekly benefit amount or duration, or both, or if the quarterly
wage report from the employer later becomes available for use by
the commission and would result in a change in the claimant's
benefit amount or duration, or both. If the redetermination results
from the employer's failure to submit the quarterly wage report in
a timely manner, the redetermination shall be effective as to
benefits payable for weeks beginning after the receipt of
information not previously submitted by the employer.
(d) If an individual files a claim for a 7-day period under
section 27(c), his or her benefit year begins the calendar week
containing the first day of that 7-day period.
(e) If all or part of a claimant's right to benefits during
his or her benefit year is canceled under section 62(b), the
benefit year is terminated on the effective date of the
cancellation.
(f) An individual may request a redetermination of his or her
benefit rights and cancellation of a previously established benefit
year if he or she has not completed a compensable period. Under
circumstances described in this subsection, the benefit year begins
the first day of the first week in which the request for
redetermination of benefit rights is duly filed.
(g)
Notwithstanding subsection (a), for services performed on
or
after January 2, 1983, and with respect to benefit years
established
before the conversion date prescribed in section 75, an
individual
shall not be entitled to establish a benefit year based
in
whole or in part on credit weeks for service in the employ of an
employing
unit, not otherwise excluded under section 43(g), in
which
more than 50% of the proprietary interest is owned by the
individual
or his or her son, daughter, or spouse, or any
combination
of these individuals, or in which more than 50% of the
proprietary
interest is owned by the mother or father of a child
under
the age of 18, or mother and father combined, unless both the
individual
and the employer notify the commission, in response to
the
commission's request for information, of the individual's
relationship
to the owners of the proprietary interest in the
employing
unit. Upon timely notification to the commission, a
benefit
year may be established for the individual, if the
individual
meets all of the following conditions: (1) has earned 20
credit
weeks in the 52 consecutive calendar weeks preceding the
week
with respect to which the individual filed an application for
benefits;
(2) with respect to the week for which the individual is
filing
an application for benefits is unemployed, and meets all of
the
other requirements of section 28; (3) with respect to the week
for
which the individual is filing an application for benefits the
individual
is not disqualified nor subject to disqualification,
except
in case of a labor dispute under section 29(8), with respect
to
the most recent period of employment with the most recent
employer
with whom the individual earned a credit week. If an
individual
files an application for a 7-day period as provided in
section
27(c), the benefit year with respect to the individual
shall
begin with the calendar week which contains the first day of
that
7-day period.
(h)
For benefit years established on or after July 1, 1983,
not
more than 10 credit weeks based on services shall be used to
pay
benefits. For the purpose of calculating the individual's
average
weekly wage, all base period wages and credit weeks shall
be
used. With respect to benefit years beginning after the
conversion
date prescribed in section 75, and notwithstanding
subsection
(a), an individual shall not be entitled to establish a
benefit
year based in whole or in part on wages earned in service,
not
otherwise excluded under section 43(g), in the employ of an
employing
unit in which more than 50% of the proprietary interest
is
owned by the individual or his or her son, daughter, spouse, or
any
combination of these individuals, or in which more than 50% of
the
proprietary interest is owned by the mother or father of a
child
under the age of 18, or mother and father combined, unless
both
the individual and the employer notify the commission, in
response
to the commission's request for information, of the
individual's
relationship to the owners of the proprietary interest
in
the employing unit. Upon timely notification to the commission,
a
benefit year may be established for the individual if the
individual
meets the requirements of subsection (a). If wages in an
individual's
base period were earned in service in the employ of
such
an employing unit, the individual's weekly benefit rate shall
be
calculated in accordance with section 27(b)(1) but the portion
of
the benefit rate attributable to this service shall be payable
for
not more than 7 weeks. The weekly benefit payment shall be
reduced
thereafter by the percentage of charge attributable to
service
with this employer, in accordance with section 20.