Bill Text: MI HB5004 | 2017-2018 | 99th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Employment security; benefits; individual to provide photo identification when applying for unemployment benefits; require. Amends sec. 28 of 1936 (Ex Sess) PA 1 (MCL 421.28).

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-09-27 - Bill Electronically Reproduced 09/26/2017 [HB5004 Detail]

Download: Michigan-2017-HB5004-Introduced.html

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HOUSE BILL No. 5004

 

 

September 26, 2017, Introduced by Rep. Hoitenga and referred to the Committee on Commerce and Trade.

 

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

 

"Michigan employment security act,"

 

by amending section 28 (MCL 421.28), as amended by 2011 PA 269.

 

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:

 

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

 

benefits with respect to any week only if the unemployment agency

 

finds all of the following:

 

     (a) For benefit years established before October 1, 2000, the

 

individual has registered for work at and thereafter has continued

 

to report at an employment office in accordance with unemployment

 

agency rules 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 unemployment agency if the

 

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

 

notifies the unemployment agency 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 effective unless the

 

notification from the employer has been received by the

 

unemployment agency 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 unemployment agency where 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 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 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 unemployment agency 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 unemployment agency. For benefit years

 

established on or after October 1, 2000, the The individual has

registered for work and has continued to report in accordance with

 

pursuant to unemployment agency rules and is actively engaged in

 

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 unemployment

 

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

 

individual off notifies the unemployment agency 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 is not be

 

effective unless the notification from the employer has been is

 

received by the unemployment agency 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 ceases 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

 

unemployment agency 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 does not apply to a claimant enrolled

 

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

 

pursuant to the rules promulgated by the unemployment agency.

 

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

 

with pursuant to section 32 and has provided the unemployment

 

agency with his or her social security number and a copy of a photo

 

identification issued by this state, another state, the federal

 

government, or an institution of higher education in this state

 

described in section 5 or 6 of article VIII of the state

 

constitution of 1963 or a junior college or community college

 

described in section 7 of article VIII of the state constitution of

 

1963.

 

     (c) The individual is able and available to appear at a

 

location of the unemployment agency's choosing for evaluation of

 

eligibility for benefits, if required, and 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, 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 unemployment agency that such

 

work is available. An individual is considered unavailable for work

 

under any of the following circumstances:

 

     (i) The individual fails during a benefit year to notify or

 

update a chargeable employer with telephone, electronic mail, or

other information sufficient to allow the employer to contact the

 

individual about available work.

 

     (ii) The individual fails, without good cause, to respond to

 

the unemployment agency within 14 calendar days of the later of the

 

mailing of a notice to the address of record requiring the

 

individual to contact the unemployment agency or of the leaving of

 

a telephone message requesting a return call and providing a return

 

name and telephone number on an automated answering device or with

 

an individual answering the telephone number of record.

 

     (iii) Unless the claimant shows good cause for failure to

 

respond, mail sent to the individual's address of record is

 

returned as undeliverable and the telephone number of record has

 

been disconnected or changed or is otherwise no longer associated

 

with the individual.

 

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

 

family member, the eligibility requirements of availability and

 

reporting shall be are 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 unemployment agency to be likely

 

to exhaust regular benefits and need reemployment services pursuant

 

to a profiling system established by the unemployment agency.

     (2) The unemployment agency may authorize an individual with

 

an unexpired benefit year to pursue vocational training or

 

retraining only if the unemployment agency 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 unemployment agency.

 

     (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 unemployment agency.

 

     (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 with the

 

approval of the unemployment agency. For each week that the

 

unemployment agency finds that an individual who is claiming

 

benefits under this act and who is participating in training with

 

the approval of the unemployment agency, 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 under subsection (1)(a) , shall is not be applicable

 

to weeks of unemployment for which the claimant is claiming

 

extended benefits if and to which section 64(8)(a)(ii) 64(7)(a)(ii)

 

is in effect, applies, unless the individual is participating in

 

training approved by the unemployment agency.

 

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

 

otherwise eligible individual shall must 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 USC 2296, nor shall the

 

individual be denied benefits by reason of leaving work to enter

 

such training if the work left is not suitable employment.

 

Furthermore, an otherwise eligible individual shall must 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 USC 2101 to 2495,

 

2497b, 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, 19 USC 2101 to 2497b.

 

     (6) For purposes of this section, for benefit years beginning

 

on or after January 1, 2013, to be actively engaged in seeking

 

work, an individual must conduct a systematic and sustained search

 

for work in each week the individual is claiming benefits, using

 

any of the following methods to report the details of the work

 

search:

 

     (a) Reporting at monthly intervals on the unemployment

 

agency's online reporting system the name of each employer and

 

physical or online location of each employer where work was sought

 

and the date and method by which work was sought with each

 

employer.

 

     (b) Filing a written report with the unemployment agency by

 

mail or facsimile transmission not later than the end of the fourth

 

calendar week after the end of the week in which the individual

 

engaged in the work search, on a form approved by the unemployment

 

agency, indicating the name of each employer and physical or online

 

location of each employer where work was sought and the date and

 

method by which work was sought with each employer.

 

     (c) Appearing at least monthly in person at a Michigan works

 

agency office to report the name and physical or online location of

 

each employer where the individual sought work during the previous

 

month and the date and method by which work was sought with each

 

employer.

 

     (7) The work search conducted by the claimant is subject to

 

random audit by the unemployment agency.

     Enacting section 1. This amendatory act takes effect 90 days

 

after the date it is enacted into law.