HB-5170, As Passed Senate, December 13, 2017
October 24, 2017, Introduced by Rep. Bellino and referred to the Committee on Oversight.
A bill to amend 1936 (Ex Sess) PA 1, entitled
"Michigan employment security act,"
by amending section 20 (MCL 421.20), as amended by 2013 PA 142.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 20. (a) The following apply to benefits paid:
(1)
(a) Benefits paid shall must be
charged against the
employer's account as of the quarter in which the payments are
made. If the unemployment agency determines that any benefits
charged against an employer's account were improperly paid, an
amount
equal to the charge based on those benefits shall must be
credited
to the employer's account and a corresponding charge shall
must be made to the nonchargeable benefits account as of the date
of the charge. Recovery of benefits improperly paid to the claimant
under this subdivision must be made pursuant to section 62(a).
(2) If an employer or employer's agent has a pattern of
failing
to respond with timely or adequate information required or
requested
under section 32, by the
unemployment agency regarding a
claimant's disqualification from receiving benefits or period of
ineligibility, benefits paid to a claimant as a result of the
employer's or employer's agent's failure to provide timely or
adequate
information shall must be charged to that the employer's
account and the employer's account must not be credited. To
demonstrate a pattern sufficient to render the benefits chargeable,
the number of failures, excluding failures for which an employer or
employer's agent has established good cause, during the prior
calendar year must be 5 or more and equal to or greater than 2% of
all the requests directed to the employer during the prior calendar
year.
The unemployment agency shall document
repeated make a
determination for and assign a case number to each failure to
provide
a timely or adequate responses and shall take into
consideration
the number of instances of failure in relation to the
number
of requests. The number of failures must be more than 4 and
constitute
2% or more of all the requests directed to the employer
during
the prior calendar year. A determination that an employer's
account
shall be charged and that the employer's account shall not
be
credited for the benefit payments is appealable in the same
manner
as other unemployment determinations. Recovery of benefits
improperly
paid to the claimant under this subsection shall be as
provided
in section 62(a).response. A
determination made under this
subdivision may be appealed within 30 days after the date it was
issued, but an appeal is limited to the determination that the
employer failed to provide a timely or adequate response in that
instance. Each determination made under this subdivision must do
all of the following:
(i) Identify and state why a response was not timely or not
adequate.
(ii) State that the employer may appeal the determination
within 30 days after the date it was issued.
(iii) State the number of failures that constitute a pattern
under this subdivision.
(3) By January 11 each year, beginning in 2019, the
unemployment agency shall send a determination to an employer or
employer's agent that demonstrated during the previous calendar
year a pattern of failing to respond timely or adequately under
subdivision (2). A determination made under this subdivision is
appealable in the same manner as any other determination made by
the unemployment agency, but is limited to the determination that
the employer demonstrated a pattern of failing to respond timely or
adequately under subdivision (2). A determination made under this
subdivision must include all of the following for each failure:
(i) The name of the claimant and the last 4 digits of the
claimant's social security number.
(ii) Whether the failure was because the response was not
timely or not adequate.
(iii) The date of the unemployment agency's original request
for information.
(iv) The case number the unemployment agency assigned to the
failure.
(v) A statement that the employer's account will not be
credited for benefits paid on any claim filed during the current
calendar year if the employer fails to timely or adequately respond
to the unemployment agency's request for information made during
the current calendar year regarding a claimant's disqualification
from receiving benefits or period of ineligibility.
(vi) A statement that a determination made under this
subdivision is appealable in the same manner as any other
determination made by the unemployment agency.
(b) For benefit years established on or after October 1, 2000,
the
claimant's full weekly benefit rate shall must be charged to
the account or experience account of the claimant's most recent
separating employer for each of the first 2 weeks of benefits
payable
to the claimant in the benefit year in accordance with
pursuant
to the monetary determination issued pursuant
to under
section 32. However, if the total sum of wages paid by an employer
totals
$200.00 or less, those wages shall must be used for purposes
of benefit payment, but any benefit charges attributable to those
wages
shall must be charged to the nonchargeable benefits account.
Thereafter, remaining weeks of benefits payable in the benefit year
shall
must be paid in accordance with pursuant to the monetary
determination
and shall must be charged proportionally to all base
period employers, with the charge to each base period employer
being made on the basis of the ratio that total wages paid by the
employer in the base period bears to total wages paid by all
employers in the base period. However, if the claimant did not
perform services for the most recent separating employer or
employing entity and receive earnings for performing the services
of at least 40 times the state minimum hourly wage times 7 during
the claimant's most recent period of employment with the employer
or employing entity, then all weeks of benefits payable in the
benefit
year shall must be charged proportionally to all base
period employers, with the charge to each base period employer
being made on the basis of the ratio that total wages paid by the
employer in the base period bears to total wages paid by all
employers in the base period. If the claimant performed services
for the most recent separating employing entity and received
earnings for performing the services of at least 40 times the state
minimum hourly wage times 7 during the claimant's most recent
period of employment for the employing entity but the separating
employing entity was not a liable employer, the first 2 weeks of
benefits
payable to the claimant shall must
be charged
proportionally to all base period employers, with the charge to
each base period employer made on the basis of the ratio that total
wages paid by the employer in the base period bears to total wages
paid by all employers in the base period. The "separating employer"
is the employer that caused the individual to be unemployed as
defined
described in section 48.
(c) For benefit years established before October 1, 2000,
charges for regular benefits to reimbursing employers or to a
contributing
employer's experience account shall must be as
formerly provided in this subsection.
(d) For benefit years beginning on or after October 1, 2000,
and except as otherwise provided in section 11(d) or (g) or section
46, the charges for regular benefits to any reimbursing employer's
account
or to any contributing employer's experience account shall
must not exceed either the amount derived by multiplying by 2 the
weekly
benefit rate chargeable to the employer in accordance with
under subsection (b) if the employer is the separating employer and
is chargeable for the first 2 weeks of benefits, or the amount
derived from the percentage of the weekly benefit rate chargeable
to
the employer in accordance with under
subsection (b), multiplied
by the number of weeks of benefits chargeable to base period
employers based on base period wages, to which the individual is
entitled as provided in section 27(d), if the employer is a base
period employer, or both of these amounts if the employer was both
the chargeable separating employer and a base period employer.
(e) For benefit years beginning before October 1, 2000,
benefits
and charging for multiemployer credit weeks shall must be
determined as formerly provided in this subsection.
(f) For benefit years beginning on or after October 1, 2000
and before January 1, 2014, if a base period contributing employer
notifies the unemployment agency that it paid gross wages to a
claimant in a week at least equal to the employer's benefit charge
for that claimant for the week, then the unemployment agency shall
issue a monetary redetermination noncharging the account of the
employer for that week and for the remaining weeks of the benefit
year for benefits payable to the claimant that would otherwise be
charged to the employer's account. For benefit years beginning on
or after January 1, 2014, benefits payable to an individual for a
week
and for each remaining payable week in the benefit year shall
must be charged to the nonchargeable benefits account if either of
the following occurs:
(1) The individual reports gross earnings in the week with a
contributing base period employer at least equal to the employer's
benefit charges for that individual for the week.
(2) A contributing base period employer timely protests a
determination charging benefits to its account for a week in which
the employer paid gross wages to an individual at least equal to
the employer's charges for benefits paid to that individual for
that week.
(g) For benefit years beginning before October 1, 2000,
training benefits are determined as formerly provided in this
subsection.
(h) For benefit years beginning on or after October 1, 2000:
(1) Training benefits as provided in section 27(g), and
extended
benefits as provided in section 64, shall must be charged
to each reimbursing employer in the base period of the claim to
which the benefits are related, on the basis of the ratio that the
total wages paid by a reimbursing employer during the base period
bears to the total wages paid by all reimbursing employers in the
base period.
(2) Training benefits, and extended benefits to the extent
they are not reimbursable by the federal government and have been
allocated
to a reimbursing employer, shall must be charged to that
reimbursing employer. A contributing employer's experience account
shall
must not be charged with training benefits. Training
benefits
based on service with a contributing employer, to the extent they
are
not reimbursable by the federal government, shall must be
charged to the nonchargeable benefits account. Extended benefits
paid and based on service with a contributing employer, to the
extent
they are not reimbursable by the federal government, shall
must be charged to that employer's experience account.
(3) If the training benefits or extended benefits are
chargeable only to a single reimbursing employer, the benefits
shall
must be charged in accordance with pursuant to subsection
(a). If the training benefits or extended benefits are chargeable
to more than 1 reimbursing employer, or to 1 or more reimbursing
employers and the nonchargeable benefits account, the benefits
shall
must be charged as of the quarter in which the payments
are
made.
(4)
Notice of charges made under this subsection shall must be
given to each employer by means of a current listing of charges, at
least weekly, and subsequently by a quarterly summary statement of
charges. The listing shall specify the name and social security
number of each claimant paid benefits in the week, the weeks for
which the benefits were paid, and the amount of benefits chargeable
to that employer paid for each week. The quarterly summary
statement of charges shall list each claimant by name and social
security number and shall show total benefit payments chargeable to
that employer and made to each claimant during the calendar
quarter.
The listing shall be is considered to satisfy the
requirements of sections 21(a) and 32(f) that notification be given
to each employer of benefits charged against that employer's
account by means of a listing of the benefit payment. All protest
and appeal rights applicable to benefit payment listings shall also
apply to the notice of charges. If an employer receives both a
current listing of charges and a quarterly summary statement of
charges under this subsection, all protest and appeal rights apply
only to the first notice given.
(i) If a benefit year is established on or after October 1,
2000, the portion of benefits paid in that benefit year that are
based on wages used to establish the immediately preceding benefit
year
that began before October 1, 2000 shall must not be charged to
the
employer or employers who paid those wages but shall must be
charged instead to the nonchargeable benefits account.
(j) For benefit years beginning after March 30, 2009, benefits
paid to a person who leaves employment to accompany a spouse who is
a
full-time member of the United States armed forces Armed Forces
and is reassigned for military service in a different geographic
location
are not chargeable to the employer, but shall must be
charged to the nonchargeable benefits account.
(k) As used in subsection (a):
(1) "Adequate" means that an employer or employer's agent
answered each question of the unemployment agency's request for
information, or provided an explanation as to why it did not answer
a question, or provided a summary of the requested information to
reasonably allow the unemployment agency to make its determination.
(2) "Good cause" means any of the following:
(i) The employer or employer's agent did not possess the
information and could not reasonably obtain the information by the
date requested by the unemployment agency.
(ii) Disclosing the information would endanger the health,
morals, or safety of the employer or the employer's agent or
employee.
(iii) The employer or employer's agent presents a valid legal
or evidentiary objection to the unemployment agency's request for
information, as determined by the unemployment agency.
(3) "Timely" means that the unemployment agency received a
response to its request for information from an employer or
employer's agent not later than 10 calendar days, not including a
Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, after the mailing date or
transmittal date of its request.
Enacting section 1. This amendatory act takes effect January
1, 2018.
Enacting section 2. This amendatory act does not take effect
unless all of the following bills of the 99th Legislature are
enacted into law:
(a) Senate Bill No.____ or House Bill No. 5169 (request no.
03872'17).
(b) Senate Bill No.____ or House Bill No. 5167 (request no.
03873'17).
(c) Senate Bill No.____ or House Bill No. 5172 (request no.
03874'17).
(d) Senate Bill No.____ or House Bill No. 5165 (request no.
03877'17).
(e) Senate Bill No.____ or House Bill No. 5168 (request no.
03878'17).
(f) Senate Bill No.____ or House Bill No. 5166 (request no.
03879'17).
(g) Senate Bill No.____ or House Bill No. 5171 (request no.
03880'17).