REPORT TITLE:
EMPLOYMENT SECURITY.


DESCRIPTION:
Increases the eligibility requirements for unemployment insurance
benefits of individuals, whose benefit year begins after 1/4/92,
from not less than twenty-six times to forty-three times the
weekly benefit amount in the base period.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                        2333
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES                H.B. NO.           
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2000                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                   A  BILL  FOR  AN  ACT

RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT SECURITY. 


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

 1      SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the Hawaii employment
 
 2 security law was originally intended to protect all employees who
 
 3 lose their jobs.  However, current law allows a temporary worker
 
 4 to obtain benefits equivalent to those of a full-time, permanent
 
 5 worker, despite having worked for only a short period of time.
 
 6      In light of the State's limited resources, government must
 
 7 look carefully at the Hawaii employment security law to eliminate
 
 8 waste and to ensure that the State has sufficient resources to
 
 9 provide unemployment insurance benefits to workers who lose their
 
10 jobs.  The State can no longer afford to provide windfalls to
 
11 individuals who choose to only work temporary jobs.
 
12      The purpose of this Act is to increase the eligibility
 
13 requirements for unemployment insurance benefits under section
 
14 383-29, Hawaii Revised Statutes, by increasing the minimum
 
15 qualifying wage formula for workers whose benefit year begins
 
16 after January 4, 1992, from twenty-six times to forty-three times
 
17 the individual's weekly benefit amount in the base period.
 
18 Increasing the qualifying wages in this manner would require an
 
19 individual to work twenty-six weeks in the base period, which
 
20 would be roughly equivalent to a test of six consecutive months
 

 
Page 2                                                     2333
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 1 of work.  If a "forty-three weeks times the weekly benefit
 
 2 amount" qualifying wage formula had been in effect in 1994,
 
 3 according to the department of labor and industrial relations,
 
 4 8,051 out of the 65,048 total claims (twelve per cent) would not
 
 5 have been eligible for benefits. 
 
 6      SECTION 2.  Section 383-29, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is
 
 7 amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:
 
 8      "(a)  An unemployed individual shall be eligible to receive
 
 9 benefits with respect to any week only if the department finds
 
10 that:
 
11           (1)  Claim.  The individual has made a claim for
 
12                benefits with respect to that week in accordance
 
13                with rules the department may prescribe.
 
14           (2)  Registration.  The individual has registered for
 
15                work at, and thereafter continued to report at, an
 
16                employment office in accordance with rules the
 
17                department may prescribe, except that the
 
18                department, by rule, may waive or alter either or
 
19                both of the requirements of this paragraph as to
 
20                individuals attached to regular jobs and as to
 
21                other types of cases or situations with respect to
 
22                which it finds that compliance with those
 
23                requirements would be oppressive, or would be
 

 
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                                     H.B. NO.           
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1                inconsistent with the purpose of this chapter;
 
 2                provided that no such rule shall conflict with
 
 3                section 383-21.
 
 4           (3)  Availability.  The individual is able to work and
 
 5                is available for work; provided that no claimant
 
 6                shall be considered ineligible with respect to any
 
 7                week of unemployment for failure to comply with
 
 8                this paragraph if the failure is due to an illness
 
 9                or disability, as evidenced by a physician's
 
10                certificate, which occurs during an uninterrupted
 
11                period of unemployment with respect to which
 
12                benefits are claimed and no work which would have
 
13                been suitable prior to the beginning of the
 
14                illness and disability has been offered the
 
15                claimant.
 
16           (4)  Waiting period.  The individual has been
 
17                unemployed for a waiting period of one week within
 
18                the individual's benefit year.  No week shall be
 
19                counted as a waiting period:
 
20                (A)  If benefits have been paid with respect
 
21                     thereto;
 
22                (B)  Unless the individual was eligible for
 
23                     benefits with respect thereto as provided in
 

 
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                                     H.B. NO.           
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1                     this section and section 383-30, except for
 
 2                     the requirements of this paragraph.
 
 3           (5)  Wages for insured work; weeks of employment.
 
 4               [(A)  In the case of an individual whose benefit
 
 5                     year begins on or after January 2, 1966, but
 
 6                     prior to October 1, 1989, the individual has
 
 7                     had during the individual's base period a
 
 8                     total of fourteen or more weeks of employment
 
 9                     as defined in section 383-1 and has been paid
 
10                     wages for insured work during the
 
11                     individual's base period in an amount equal
 
12                     to at least thirty times the individual's
 
13                     weekly benefit amount as determined under
 
14                     section 383-22(b).  For the purposes of this
 
15                     subparagraph, wages for insured work shall
 
16                     include wages paid for services:
 
17                     (i)  Which were not employment, as defined in
 
18                          section 383-2 or pursuant to an election
 
19                          under section 383-77 prior to January 1,
 
20                          1978, at any time during the one-year
 
21                          period ending December 31, 1975; and
 
22                    (ii)  Which are agricultural labor as defined
 
23                          in section 383-9 except service excluded
 

 
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                                     H.B. NO.           
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1                          under section 383-7(1), or are domestic
 
 2                          service except service excluded under
 
 3                          section 383-7(2); except to the extent
 
 4                          that assistance under Title II of the
 
 5                          Emergency Jobs and Unemployment
 
 6                          Assistance Act of 1974 was paid on the
 
 7                          basis of those services.
 
 8                (B)  In the case of an individual whose benefit
 
 9                     year begins on and after October 1, 1989 to
 
10                     January 4, 1992, the individual has been
 
11                     employed as defined in section 383-2 and has
 
12                     been paid wages for insured work during the
 
13                     individual's base period in an amount equal
 
14                     to not less than thirty times the
 
15                     individual's weekly benefit amount, as
 
16                     determined under section 383-22(b), and the
 
17                     individual has been paid wages for insured
 
18                     work during at least two quarters of the
 
19                     individual's base period; provided that no
 
20                     otherwise eligible individual who established
 
21                     a prior benefit year under this chapter or
 
22                     the unemployment compensation law of any
 
23                     other state, shall be eligible to receive
 

 
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                                     H.B. NO.           
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1                     benefits in a succeeding benefit year until,
 
 2                     during the period following the beginning of
 
 3                     the prior benefit year, that individual
 
 4                     worked in covered employment for which wages
 
 5                     were paid in an amount equal to at least five
 
 6                     times the weekly benefit amount established
 
 7                     for that individual in the succeeding benefit
 
 8                     year.
 
 9           (C)] (A)  In the case of an individual whose benefit
 
10                     year begins after January 4, 1992, the
 
11                     individual has been employed as defined in
 
12                     section 383-2 and has been paid wages for
 
13                     such insured work during the individual's
 
14                     base period in an amount equal to not less
 
15                     than [twenty-six] forty-three times the
 
16                     individual's weekly benefit amount, as
 
17                     determined under section 383-22(b), and the
 
18                     individual has been paid wages for insured
 
19                     work during at least two quarters of the
 
20                     individual's base period; provided that no
 
21                     otherwise eligible individual who established
 
22                     a prior benefit year under this chapter or
 
23                     the unemployment compensation law of any
 

 
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                                     H.B. NO.           
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1                     other state, shall be eligible to receive
 
 2                     benefits in a succeeding benefit year until,
 
 3                     during the period following the beginning of
 
 4                     the prior benefit year, that individual
 
 5                     worked in covered employment for which wages
 
 6                     were paid in an amount equal to at least five
 
 7                     times the weekly benefit amount established
 
 8                     for that individual in the succeeding benefit
 
 9                     year.
 
10          [(D)] (B)  For the purposes of this paragraph, wages and
 
11                     weeks of employment shall be counted for
 
12                     benefit purposes with respect to any benefit
 
13                     year only if the benefit year begins
 
14                     subsequent to the dates on which the
 
15                     employing unit by which the wages or other
 
16                     remuneration as provided in the definition of
 
17                     weeks of employment in section 383-1 were
 
18                     paid has satisfied the conditions of section
 
19                     383-1 with respect to becoming an employer.
 
20           (6)  Worker profiling.  Effective November 24, 1994, an
 
21                individual who has been referred to reemployment
 
22                services pursuant to the profiling system under
 
23                section 383-92.5 participates in those services or
 

 
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                                     H.B. NO.           
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1                in similar services.  The individual may not be
 
 2                required to participate in reemployment services
 
 3                if the department determines the individual has
 
 4                completed those services, or there is justifiable
 
 5                cause for the claimant's failure to participate in
 
 6                those services."
 
 7      SECTION 3.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed.
 
 8 New statutory material is underscored.
 
 9      SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
 
10 
 
11                       INTRODUCED BY:  ___________________________