S-5159.1

SENATE BILL 6441

BySenators Stanford, Keiser, Das, Hasegawa, Conway, and Saldaña

AN ACT Relating to allowing unemployment insurance benefits for certain workers due to a lockout; and amending RCW 50.20.010.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. RCW 50.20.010 and 2019 c 50 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

(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) 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.

(ii) For the purposes of this subsection, "customary trade practices" includes compliance with an electrical apprenticeship training program that includes a recognized referral system under apprenticeship program standards approved by the Washington state apprenticeship and training council;

(d) He or she has been unemployed for a waiting period of one week unless the individual has been unemployed due to an employer lockout;

(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:

(i) The individual has completed such services; or

(ii) There is justifiable cause for the claimant's failure to participate in such services; and

(f) 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.

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