AN ACT Relating to establishing community service standards for individuals receiving unemployment benefits; amending RCW 50.20.010; adding a new section to chapter 50.20 RCW; and creating a new section.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that as of November 2018, the unemployment rate in Washington was 4.3 percent and there were approximately one hundred sixty-three thousand unemployed people in the state. The legislature further finds that the performance of community service helps unemployed individuals maintain a connection to the labor market, which in turn increases the ability of an unemployed individual to find permanent employment. The legislature therefore intends to encourage unemployed people to maintain a connection to the labor market by establishing community service standards for individuals receiving unemployment benefits.

(1) An unemployed individual shall be eligible to receive waiting period credits or benefits with respect to any week in his or her eligibility period only if the commissioner finds that:

(a) He or she has registered for work at, and thereafter has continued to report at, an employment office in accordance with such regulation as the commissioner may prescribe, except that the commissioner may by regulation waive or alter either or both of the requirements of this subdivision as to individuals attached to regular jobs and as to such other types of cases or situations with respect to which the commissioner finds that the compliance with such requirements would be oppressive, or would be inconsistent with the purposes of this title;

(b) He or she has filed an application for an initial determination and made a claim for waiting period credit or for benefits in accordance with the provisions of this title;

(c) He or she is able to work, and is available for work in any trade, occupation, profession, or business for which he or she is reasonably fitted.

(i) With respect to claims that have an effective date before January 4, 2004, to be available for work an individual must be ready, able, and willing, immediately to accept any suitable work which may be offered to him or her and must be actively seeking work pursuant to customary trade practices and through other methods when so directed by the commissioner or the commissioner's agents.

(ii) With respect to claims that have an effective date on or after January 4, 2004, to be available for work an individual must be ready, able, and willing, immediately to accept any suitable work which may be offered to him or her and must be actively seeking work pursuant to customary trade practices and through other methods when so directed by the commissioner or the commissioner's agents. If a labor agreement or dispatch rules apply, customary trade practices must be in accordance with the applicable agreement or rules;

(e) He or she participates in reemployment services if the individual has been referred to reemployment services pursuant to the profiling system established by the commissioner under RCW 50.20.011, unless the commissioner determines that:

(f) With respect to claims that have an effective date on or after August 28, 2019, he or she performs for every four weeks of unemployment benefits received at least: (i) Twenty hours of community service; or (ii) fifteen hours of community service as a volunteer firefighter; and

(g) As to weeks beginning after March 31, 1981, which fall within an extended benefit period as defined in RCW 50.22.010, the individual meets the terms and conditions of RCW 50.22.020 with respect to benefits claimed in excess of twenty-six times the individual's weekly benefit amount.

(2) An individual's eligibility period for regular benefits shall be coincident to his or her established benefit year. An individual's eligibility period for additional or extended benefits shall be the periods prescribed elsewhere in this title for such benefits.

The commissioner may adopt rules as necessary to implement RCW 50.20.010(1)(f), including the establishment of standards for documenting and reporting community service hours worked.