An unemployed individual (claimant) is eligible to receive unemployment insurance benefits (UI benefits) if the individual: (1) worked at least 680 hours in the base year; (2) was separated from employment through no fault of the claimant's or quit work for good cause; and (3) is able to work, available to work, and is actively searching for suitable work.  The Employment Security Department (ESD) administers Washington State's unemployment insurance program.

The federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) was signed into law on March 27, 2020.  The CARES Act provided many new and extended UI benefit programs, which ESD administers.  One program was the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program, providing UI benefits to self-employed individuals, workers with insufficient work history, and others who are not eligible for regular state UI benefits.  Another program was the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program, which provided an additional $600 per week of benefits.  The FPUC expired at the end of July 2020.  The Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) program was authorized through a presidential memorandum signed on August 8, 2020.  The LWA program provided an additional $300 per week of benefits for the weeks ending August 1st through 29th and September 5th.  Many of the federal CARES Act programs continue through the Continued Assistance for Unemployed Workers Act, which was signed into law on December 27, 2020, for weeks of unemployment after 2020 through March 14, 2021.  

During the COVID pandemic, UI claims, including claims under the new federal programs, increased substantially.  ESD hired and trained new staff to process claims, including members of the national guard.  

ESD must create a training program to prepare a reserve force of skilled unemployment insurance claim adjudicators.  The program must:

• be open to both state and other public employees and private citizens;
• be of sufficient quality that persons completing the training and any required continuing education would be ready to work as a UI claim adjudicator within one week of commencing employment with ESD; and
• provide a certification of completion to participants who complete the program.

 
The Office of Financial Management must collaborate with ESD to assist ESD in identifying agencies with state employees, who meet the minimum qualifications to work as unemployment insurance claim adjudicators.  With agency approval, employees may attend the trainings.

ESD must:

• designate employees to assure written communications are tested and in plainly understood language.  Criteria for approval must include comprehensibility, clarity, and readability.  If the messaging of any letter, alert, or notice falls short of those criteria, manual methods of producing a comprehensible version shall be considered while ESD waits for their unemployment insurance technology system to incorporate required modifications;
• convey statutes and explanations in determinations;
• work with an advisory committee to explore establishing threshold to adjust staffing issues and a pilot program for unemployment to reemployment; increasing language access; and frequency of trainings;
• provide a toll-free number for claimants lacking computers or computer skill or with disabilities or limited English proficiency; 
• maintain an online dashboard and provide quarterly performance metrics reports when statewide unemployment equals or exceeds 5 percent; and
• must conduct regular drills to practice their response to emergency economic conditions.

The metrics report must include: updates of unemployment rates; total numbers of claims paid, amount compensated, claims denied, claims pending in adjudication, claims on which payment has been halted for review, pending appeals, appeals redetermined by ESD, and appeals sent to the office of administrative hearings;  claims center phone statistics including call volume, hold times, abandoned calls, repeat calls, and all-circuits-busy messages for both claimants and employers; ratio of staff phone agents to employers and ratio of staff phone agents to claimants; number and dollar total of overpayments imposed and overpayment waiver approval rate; and the percentage of unemployed persons receiving benefits.

By October 1, 2021, and each year thereafter, ESD must provide a report to the Legislature on the number of persons with current adjudicator certifications, the number of persons employed by the ESD and over what period of time, and the adjudicator training and hiring costs.
 

The unemployment insurance legislative work group is established.  The work group consists two members from each of the two largest caucuses of the Senate and the House of Representatives.  ESD must:

• meet with the unemployment insurance legislative work group at least quarterly to inform the members of the progress in implementing this act; and report on any new federal programs or funds received by ESD for unemployment compensation and administration and the use of such funds; and

• provide information and research unemployment issues as requested by members of the work group.

The work group must review ESD's software and technology issues and protocols and process for protecting sensitive data; and consider ways to support the advisory committee and to assist claimants and businesses during times when additional adjudicators are needed or times of high unemployment.

Legislative findings are made.

The committee recommended a different version of the bill than what was heard.  PRO:  This bill would increase the number of adjudicators and expedite claim resolution.  No one anticipated the unprecedented surge of volume of the UI claims.  There was a lot of unfair criticism of ESD for a situation that no one could have anticipated.  The thousands of claims overwhelmed ESD.  This was compounded by the international fraud.  This further delayed the claims process. 
 
ESD hired hundreds of people.  These are skilled positions.  Adjudicators resolve disputes.  You cannot just walk in off the street and do the work.  It a took a long time to build up capacity to meet the demand.   
 
Having a trained, skilled work force ready seems logical.  The trained staff could pivot their work to adjudicating UI claims and help with backlogs.  This bill is a first step in improving the UI process. 

OTHER:  ESD had an economic cycle plan based on the Great Recession to prepare for the next downturn.  They anticipated doubling the claims adjudicators.  This was larger in scale than anticipated.  The claim resolution requires trained adjudicators.  More highly trained staff are needed to handle complex issues that newly trained staff do not have the skill set to manage.  This would create a pool of certified trained people.