Bill Text: MI HB5412 | 2011-2012 | 96th Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Employment security; benefits; eligibility criteria; disqualify for failing or refusing a drug test. Amends sec. 28 of 1936 (Ex Sess) PA 1 (MCL 421.28).

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 22-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-02-21 - Printed Bill Filed 02/17/2012 [HB5412 Detail]

Download: Michigan-2011-HB5412-Introduced.html

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HOUSE BILL No. 5412

 

February 16, 2012, Introduced by Reps. Goike, Franz, Potvin, Bumstead, Jenkins, Johnson, Hooker, Yonker, Daley, Pscholka, Walsh, Rogers, Damrow, Somerville, Lyons, McBroom, MacGregor, Horn, Forlini, Agema, Lund, Nesbitt and Lane and referred to the Committee on Commerce.

 

     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 unemployment agency may waive

 

any of 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 or 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 is not effective unless the unemployment agency

 

receives 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 is no longer effective as to that layoff.

 

Except for a period of disqualification, the unemployment agency

 

may waive the requirement that the individual shall seek work may

 

be waived by the unemployment agency 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 has satisfied the requirement of personal

 

reporting at an employment office, as applied to a week in a period

 

during which the unemployment agency has waived 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 unemployment

 

agency rules. promulgated by the unemployment agency. For benefit

 

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

 

registered for work, and has continued to report in accordance with

 

unemployment agency rules, and is actively engaged in seeking work.

 

The unemployment agency may waive any of the requirements that the

 

individual must report, must register for work, must be available

 

to perform suitable full-time work, and must or 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 is not effective unless the unemployment agency

 

receives 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 is no longer effective as to that layoff.

 

Except for a period of disqualification, the unemployment agency

 

may waive 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 unemployment agency has waived 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

 

unemployment agency rules. promulgated by the unemployment agency.

 

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

 

with section 32 and has provided the unemployment agency with his

 

or her social security number.

 

     (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 which the

 

unemployment agency finds 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.

 

     (iv) Unless the individual shows good cause, the individual

 

fails or refuses to take a drug test that is required of the

 

individual as part of an employment application.

 

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

 

immediate family member dies, the eligibility requirements of

 

availability and reporting in subsection (1) 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 Immediate family member also

 

includes 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

 

unemployment agency determines or redetermines using a profiling

 

system it has established that the individual is 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 all of the

 

following:

 

     (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 not be is not 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 subsection (1)(a), shall not be is not applicable to

 

weeks of unemployment for which the claimant is claiming extended

 

benefits if section 64(8)(a)(ii) is in effect 64(7)(a)(i) 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 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 and shall

 

not be denied benefits by reason of for 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 for any such week in

 

training of under provisions of this act , or of any applicable

 

federal unemployment compensation law , relating that relate 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. that act.

 

     (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.