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.