Can You Draw Unemployment For Holiday Shutdowns

Topic:
UNEMPLOYMENT Bounty; SCHOOL PERSONNEL;
Location:
UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION;
Scope:
Federal laws/regulations; Connecticut laws/regulations;

The Connecticut Full general Assembly

OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH

February 10, 1997 97-R-0262

TO:

FROM: Judith S. Lohman, Principal Analyst

RE: Unemployment Bounty for School Aides

You asked why several schoolhouse aides employed by the Berlin school system were able to collect unemployment compensation during a 2-twenty-four hours Thanksgiving vacation in 1995 and how the General Assembly could change the police to prevent such results in the future.

SUMMARY

The Berlin schoolhouse aides were eligible to collect unemployment compensation during the Thanksgiving school holiday considering (one) schoolhouse was not airtight during any week that began on a Sunday at midnight, (2) the aides were not paid for the holiday period when they practice not work, and (3) several of the aides earned bereft wages between Monday and Wednesday of that week to completely beginning the benefits they were eligible to collect for Thursday and Friday.

Although it would require only a relatively small change in the diction of the state law that disqualifies educational employees from receiving unemployment compensation during virtually school vacations to extend the disqualification to encompass this situation, the police force in question is covered by federal conformity requirements. This means that our law on disqualifying instruction employees must exist the same as the federal unemployment compensation constabulary. If the General Assembly changes this law, it would likely outcome in severe budgetary penalties confronting the state and state employers.

Another alternative would be to establish a i-week waiting period for all unemployment compensation claimants. If such a provision had been in consequence, probably none of the Berlin aides would accept received benefits since their unemployment lasted only two days. The ane-

calendar week waiting period has been proposed several times in by General Assembly sessions without success. Although business organisation groups generally back up it, information technology is strongly opposed past organized labor. The nearly recent bill on the subject field was considered in 1995.

BERLIN SCHOOL CASE

Disqualification Constabulary for School Employees

The Berlin schoolhouse instance involves claims for unemployment compensation by 7 school aides for a ii-mean solar day flow of unemployment while school was closed on Thursday and Friday during Thanksgiving calendar week in 1995. The aides did not receive any holiday or other pay for time they did not work.

In full general, nether Connecticut police, employees of educational institutions, unlike other types of employees whose plants close downwards temporarily, are ineligible to collect unemployment bounty during school vacations and holidays if they work immediately before the vacation or holiday and have a reasonable balls that they volition be employed in the same capacity when schoolhouse reopens. The disqualification applies "for any week which commences during an established and customary vacation period or holiday recess . . ." (CGS � 31-227(d)(3)).

All unemployment compensation eligibility decisions are made on a weekly basis and eligibility can alter calendar week by week depending on circumstances. Labor Department regulations define a "week" for unemployment compensation purposes as a "calendar week commencing at midnight on Sunday" (Regs. of Ct. Country Agencies, � 31-222-xiii (a)). Because the customary Thanksgiving holiday in this instance encompassed simply a Th and a Friday, at that place was no week of unemployment that commenced during the vacation menstruation. Thus, the Labor Section ruled that the disqualification provision of the constabulary did non apply and the aides were eligible to collect unemployment compensation based on their fractional unemployment during Thanksgiving week.

This ruling was upheld past an appeals referee on November 25, 1996. (Ironically, equally the employer noted in its argument, if school had been closed for the entire Thanksgiving week, the aides would not have been eligible for unemployment bounty even though their period of unemployment would have been five days instead of two.) The employer has the right to entreatment the referee ' southward determination to the three-member Employment Security Board of Review and from there to Superior Courtroom if it wishes.

Budgetary Requirements

Although 7 aides filed claims for benefits and were constitute not to be disqualified to receive them under Section 31-227 (d)(iii), only five of the seven actually received any money, according to Labor Department records. This is because other parts of the unemployment compensation police force impose monetary restrictions on the amounts claimants may collect. A claimant may only collect benefits for periods of unemployment lasting less than a full week if his total wages for the role of the week that he worked are less than 1� times whatever his unemployment bounty do good would be if he were unemployed for the entire calendar week (� 31-229).

A person ' s benefit rate for a calendar week of full unemployment is 50% of the average weekly wages he earned in the two highest-paid quarters of his base catamenia (the beginning four of the five most recently completed calendar quarters prior to the date of the claim) up to a maximum of $353 per week. Thus, anyone who earns more than $530 in a partial work week (virtually $22 an 60 minutes for three eight-hr days) could non authorize for unemployment compensation benefits fifty-fifty if he is unemployed for the residue of the week. And many claimants who earn less might also be disqualified if their daily wages for part of the week are high (because of overtime, for example) and their benefit rate is low because they commonly earn less. In the Berlin instance, but five of the vii claimants afflicted by the eligibility decision under � 31-227(d)(iii) actually received whatsoever money. The others did not, presumably considering they did non fall under the 1� times requirement.

Finally, benefits are reduced when the claimant earns wages in the aforementioned week. The deduction from the claimant ' s weekly do good equals 2-thirds of his wages for the week. Thus, if a claimant eligible for a total unemployment benefit of $200 a week earns $100 by working role of the week, his do good is reduced by $66, giving him a benefit for that week of $134. The deduction is merely two-thirds of wages instead of 100% so claimants have an incentive to work office-time when they can. Since the Berlin aides worked three days during the week in question, their unemployment benefits were correspondingly affected. The five claimants received amounts ranging from $xiv to $67 for their two days of unemployment and the total benefits paid to the 5 combined was $154.

CHANGING THE LAW

Department 31-227

The Berlin school district proposes amending Section 31-227 (d)(3) to eliminate any possibility that a school employee could collect unemployment compensation for an established schoolhouse vacation or holiday that lasts for part of a week. Such a issue could be achieved by a relatively small subpoena in the statutory wording, probably by changing the current phrase "for whatsoever week which commences during an established and customary holiday period or holiday recess . . ." to "for whatever week which includes" such a period. Only Department 31-227(d) is a so-called "federal conformity" provision. This ways that its diction must, by federal law, accommodate to an identical provision of the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (26 USCA 3304(a)(half-dozen)(A), copy enclosed). If a state ' s unemployment compensation law does not suit to the federal law in specified areas, state employers cannot claim credit against their federal unemployment bounty taxes for state unemployment bounty taxes they pay and the state loses all federal funding for administering its unemployment compensation system.

Other Alternatives

Assuming the federal requirements make the consequences of alteration Section 31-227(d)(iii) as described undesirable, the only remaining state legislative alternatives are to change the unemployment compensation law in means that affect all employers and employees, not just schools.

One possibility would be to crave the Labor Department to use a different calendar week (i.eastward. other than Sun midnight through Saturday at 11:59 p.1000.) for determining unemployment eligibility. But this change would not resolve the randomness of the current situation that the Berlin school district objects to.

Another option would be to institute a waiting menstruation for collecting unemployment compensation benefits. Nether such a proposal, a person adamant to be eligible would have to be unemployed for a minimum flow (most proposals specify i week) before he begins receiving unemployment compensation checks. A waiting menses eliminates the possibility of claimants collecting unemployment compensation for short periods such as the 2-24-hour interval Thanksgiving Day vacation.

Several bills to institute a one-week waiting menses for unemployment bounty have been introduced in the General Assembly in past sessions simply have non been adopted. Nosotros enclose a copy of such a bill that was introduced in 1995 for your data (SB 327, � 2).

Attachments:

Federal Unemployment Tax Human action (26 USCA 3304(a)(half-dozen)(A).

JSL:tjo

Source: https://www.cga.ct.gov/PS97/rpt/olr/htm/97-R-0262.htm

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