SB 222-EMPLOYMENT SECURITY ACT CHAIRMAN MACKIE announced SB 222 to be up for consideration. MR. RON HALL, Deputy Director, Employment Security Division, said this bill is basically housekeeping. Section 1 replaces the standard industrial clasification system with a North American industry classification system, a conformity issue with USDOL based on a NAFTA code. Section 2 also conforms to the NAFTA code's employer rate of contributions. It won't have any effect on current employer rates, but it has a different rating system. Section 3 is a technical change to clarify that the potential disqualification for misconduct that applies only to the last period of employment held prior to filing for unemployment insurance benefits. They are adding "last." Right now if the issue comes up today, the Department sends out notices to employers that aren't involved in the issue, they have a problem showing up for the appeal hearing. Section 4 amends the reference to training under 29 USC 16.51 - 16.58 JTPA to public law 105.220, the Work Force Investment Act (WIA). JTPA is closing out in July 2000 when the Work Force Investment Act takes over and this allows continued payments of approved training under the WIA. Section 5 is changed to make benefit years mutually exclusive and eliminate confusion in determining which benefit year or week will be filed. SENATOR KELLY asked him to explain the benefit week and how it's different. MR. CHUCK BLANKENSHIP, Assistant Director, Employment Security Division, said the basis to the proposed change to the definition of a benefit week is that the current definition allows for some overlap. Benefits are based on a week by week eligibility Sunday through Saturday. Current definition of a benefit year is a period of time during which a claimant can file for the benefit entitlement begins with whatever day they file their claim and ends one year later. If they file on a Wednesday, it would end the following year on a Tuesday. This raises an issues on the last week of that claim as it could actually fall in either benefit year. It has created a great deal of confusion both for the claimants and many hours and tens of thousands of dollars in programing because of this overlap of benefit years. A simple solution is the change in definition that says when you file a claim, that week in which you file it, the effective date would be Sunday and it would end 52 weeks later on a Saturday. Unfortunately, as they looked at calendars for the last several years, periodically when a calendar quarter begins on a Sunday, they get into a situation that can cause difficulty in the subsequent claim, if the claimant has to file another year. That's the reason they had to come up with a 53 week benefit year. This has only happened 10 times in a 20 year period, but when they started looking at potential scenarios, they knew they would have to have some way of dealing with it. If a claimant filed on October 1, 2000 or any time that week, under the proposed legislation, they would make it effective October 1, the Sunday of that week. That claim would end in 2001 on September 29 which is a Saturday. The claim filed in the following week, should the claimant need a second benefit year, would begin on September 30 which is a Sunday. The qualifying period of wages used to determine eligibility for an unemployment claim is predicated on the calendar quarter in which the claim was filed. This situation would cause them to be double using wage credits because of the overlapping in the qualifying base period for a claim. This is the only reason for the 53 week exception. As a general rule, the claim would start on Sunday and end 52 week later on Saturday. There would be no confusion of where that transitional week would fall. MR. HALL explained that section 6 adds a transitional provision in uncodified law to address benefit years that will begin under the old definition, but will expire under the new definition. Sections 7 and 8 speak to the effective date. SENATOR KELLY asked if he anticipated passage of this bill resulting in more benefits being paid. MR. HALL said it just cleans up technicalities. There is an expense to the state, but the expense is mostly to the claimant. It's benficial to them to not use the same base period. When their claim ends and it's in the same base period they started with, there's a problem, especially if they haven't earned any additional wages. No, it won't add any claims to the pool. Number 3998 SENATOR LEMAN moved to report SB 222 from committee with individual recommendations. There were no objections and it was so ordered.