AN ACT Relating to
unemployment insurance deductions; creating new sections; making an
appropriation; and providing an expiration date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF
WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec.
1. (1) The purpose of this
act is to provide for a study which will review incentives that encourage
workers receiving unemployment insurance benefits to seek employment
opportunities and return to full-time employment with the result that the
unemployment insurance trust fund is positively affected.
(2)(a) The employment
security department shall undertake a pilot project to determine the effect of
allowing unemployment insurance claimants to keep a greater portion of their
weekly benefits when engaged in part-time or temporary employment, as provided
in section 2 of this act. The department shall develop a plan to implement the
project, including the number of participants and the criteria for
participation in the project. The plan shall be reviewed and approved by the
unemployment insurance advisory committee before the pilot is implemented.
(b) The department
shall report to the appropriate committees of the legislature on the pilot
project by December 31, 1996. The report shall include the impact on the
unemployment insurance trust fund and on claimants participating in the
project.
NEW SECTION. Sec.
2. For the purposes of the
pilot project created under section 1 of this act, the following requirements
for defining "unemployment" and level of unemployment insurance
benefit deductions is as follows:
(1)(a) An individual
shall be deemed to be "unemployed" in any week during which the
individual performs no services and with respect to which no remuneration is
payable to the individual, or in any week of less than full time work, if the
remuneration payable to the individual with respect to such week is less than
one and one-half times the individual's weekly benefit amount plus fifteen
dollars. The commissioner shall prescribe regulations applicable to unemployed
individuals making such distinctions in the procedures as to such types of
unemployment as the commissioner deems necessary.
(b) An individual shall
be deemed not to be "unemployed" during any week which falls totally
within a period during which the individual, pursuant to a collective
bargaining agreement or individual employment contract, is employed full time
in accordance with a definition of full time contained in the agreement or
contract, and for which compensation for full time work is payable. This
subsection may not be applied retroactively to an individual who had no
guarantee of work at the start of such period and subsequently is provided
additional work by the employer; and
(2) If an eligible
individual is available for work for less than a full week, he or she shall be
paid his or her weekly benefit amount reduced by one-seventh of such amount for
each day that he or she is unavailable for work. However, if he or she is
unavailable for work for three days or more of a week, he or she shall be
considered unavailable for the entire week.
Each eligible
individual who is unemployed in any week shall be paid with respect to such
week a benefit in an amount equal to his or her weekly benefit amount less
sixty-six and two-thirds percent of that part of the remuneration, if any,
payable to him or her with respect to such week which is in excess of fifteen
dollars. Such benefit, if not a multiple of one dollar, shall be reduced to
the next lower multiple of one dollar.
Sec. 3. RCW 50.24.014 and 1993 c
483 s 20 are each amended to read as follows:
(1)(a) A
separate and identifiable account to provide for the financing of special
programs to assist the unemployed is established in the administrative
contingency fund. Contributions to this account shall accrue and become
payable by each employer, except employers as described in RCW 50.44.010 and
50.44.030 who have properly elected to make payments in lieu of contributions,
taxable local government employers as described in RCW 50.44.035, and those
employers who are required to make payments in lieu of contributions, at a
basic rate of two one-hundredths of one percent. The amount of wages subject
to tax shall be determined under RCW 50.24.010.
(b) For the
first calendar quarter of 1994 only, ((this)) the basic two
one-hundredths of one percent contribution payable under (a) of this
subsection shall be increased by one-hundredth of one percent to a total
rate of three one-hundredths of one percent. The proceeds of this incremental
one-hundredth of one percent shall be used solely for the purposes described in
section 22, chapter 483, Laws of 1993, and for the purposes described in
section 1 of this act. Any surplus from contributions payable under
this subsection (b) will be deposited in the unemployment compensation
trust fund.
(2)(a)
Contributions under this section shall become due and be paid by each employer
under rules as the commissioner may prescribe, and shall not be deducted, in
whole or in part, from the remuneration of individuals in the employ of the
employer. Any deduction in violation of this section is unlawful.
(b) In the
payment of any contributions under this section, a fractional part of a cent
shall be disregarded unless it amounts to one-half cent or more, in which case
it shall be increased to one cent.
(3) If the
commissioner determines that federal funding has been increased to provide
financing for the services specified in chapter 50.62 RCW, the commissioner
shall direct that collection of contributions under this section be terminated
on the following January 1st.
NEW SECTION. Sec.
4. The sum of four hundred
thousand dollars, or as much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for
the biennium ending June 30, 1995, from the unemployment insurance funds
collected under RCW 50.24.014(1)(b) to the employment security department for the
purposes of section 1 of this act.
NEW SECTION. Sec.
5. Sections 1 and 2 of this
act shall expire July 1, 1997.
NEW SECTION. Sec.
6. If any part of this act
is found to be in conflict with federal requirements that are a prescribed
condition to the allocation of federal funds to the state or the eligibility of
employers in this state for federal unemployment tax credits, the conflicting
part of this act is hereby declared to be inoperative solely to the extent of
the conflict, and such finding or determination shall not affect the operation
of the remainder of this act. The rules under this act shall meet federal
requirements that are a necessary condition to the receipt of federal funds by the
state or the granting of federal unemployment tax credits to employers in this
state.
