Report Title:

Labor; unemployment insurance

Description:

Base period

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

28

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

Relating to unemployment insurance.

 

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

SECTION 1. Section 383-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new definition to be appropriately inserted and to read as follows:

""Alternative base period" shall mean:

(1) The last four completed calendar quarters immediately preceding the individual's benefit period; or

(2) The last three completed calendar quarters immediately preceding the benefit period and, of the calendar quarter in which the benefit period commences, the portion of the quarter that occurs before the commencing of the benefit period."

SECTION 2. Section 383-29, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) An unemployed individual shall be eligible to receive benefits with respect to any week only if the department finds that:

(1) Claim. The individual has made a claim for benefits with respect to that week in accordance with rules the department may prescribe.

(2) Registration. The individual has registered for work at, and thereafter continued to report at, an employment office in accordance with rules the department may prescribe, except that the department, by rule, may waive or alter either or both of the requirements of this paragraph as to individuals attached to regular jobs and as to other types of cases or situations with respect to which it finds that compliance with those requirements would be oppressive, or would be inconsistent with the purpose of this chapter; provided that no such rule shall conflict with section 383-21.

(3) Availability. The individual is able to work and is available for work; provided that no claimant shall be considered ineligible with respect to any week of unemployment for failure to comply with this paragraph if the failure is due to an illness or disability, as evidenced by a physician's certificate, which occurs during an uninterrupted period of unemployment with respect to which benefits are claimed and no work which would have been suitable prior to the beginning of the illness and disability has been offered the claimant.

(4) Waiting period. The individual has been unemployed for a waiting period of one week within the individual's benefit year. No week shall be counted as a waiting period:

(A) If benefits have been paid with respect thereto;

(B) Unless the individual was eligible for benefits with respect thereto as provided in this section and section 383-30, except for the requirements of this paragraph.

(5) Wages for insured work; weeks of employment.

(A) In the case of an individual whose benefit year begins on or after January 2, 1966, but prior to October 1, 1989, the individual has had during the individual's base period a total of fourteen or more weeks of employment as defined in section 383-1 and has been paid wages for insured work during the individual's base period in an amount equal to at least thirty times the individual's weekly benefit amount as determined under section 383-22(b). For the purposes of this subparagraph, wages for insured work shall include wages paid for services:

(i) Which were not employment, as defined in section 383-2 or pursuant to an election under section 383-77 prior to January 1, 1978, at any time during the one-year period ending December 31, 1975; and

(ii) Which are agricultural labor as defined in section 383-9 except service excluded under section 383-7(1), or are domestic service except service excluded under section 383-7(2); except to the extent that assistance under Title II of the Emergency Jobs and Unemployment Assistance Act of 1974 was paid on the basis of those services.

(B) In the case of an individual whose benefit year begins on and after October 1, 1989 to January 4, 1992, the individual has been employed as defined in section 383-2 and has been paid wages for insured work during the individual's base period in an amount equal to not less than thirty times the individual's weekly benefit amount, as determined under section 383-22(b), and the individual has been paid wages for insured work during at least two quarters of the individual's base period; provided that no otherwise eligible individual who established a prior benefit year under this chapter or the unemployment compensation law of any other state, shall be eligible to receive benefits in a succeeding benefit year until, during the period following the beginning of the prior benefit year, that individual worked in covered employment for which wages were paid in an amount equal to at least five times the weekly benefit amount established for that individual in the succeeding benefit year.

(C) In the case of an individual whose benefit year begins after January 4, 1992, the individual has been employed as defined in section 383-2 and has been paid wages for such insured work during the individual's base period in an amount equal to not less than twenty-six times the individual's weekly benefit amount, as determined under section 383-22(b), and the individual has been paid wages for insured work during at least two quarters of the individual's base period; provided that no otherwise eligible individual who established a prior benefit year under this chapter or the unemployment compensation law of any other state, shall be eligible to receive benefits in a succeeding benefit year until, during the period following the beginning of the prior benefit year, that individual worked in covered employment for which wages were paid in an amount equal to at least five times the weekly benefit amount established for that individual in the succeeding benefit year.

(D) For the purposes of this paragraph, wages and weeks of employment shall be counted for benefit purposes with respect to any benefit year only if the benefit year begins subsequent to the dates on which the employing unit by which the wages or other remuneration as provided in the definition of weeks of employment in section 383-1 were paid has satisfied the conditions of section 383-1 with respect to becoming an employer.

(E) If an individual does not have sufficient qualifying weeks or wages in the base period to qualify for unemployment insurance benefits, the department shall notify the individual of the option of designating that the base period shall be the alternative base period.

(F) If information regarding weeks and wages for the calendar quarter or quarters immediately preceding the benefit period is not available from the regular quarterly reports of wage information, and the department is not able to obtain the information using other means pursuant to state or federal law, the department may base the determination of eligibility for unemployment insurance benefits on the affidavit of an individual with respect to weeks and wages for that calendar quarter. The individual shall furnish payroll documentation, if available, in support of the affidavit. A determination of unemployment insurance benefits based on an alternative base period shall be adjusted when the quarterly report of wage information from the employer is received, if that information causes a change in the determination.

(6) Worker profiling. Effective November 24, 1994, an individual who has been referred to reemployment services pursuant to the profiling system under section 383-92.5 participates in those services or in similar services. The individual may not be required to participate in reemployment services if the department determines the individual has completed those services, or there is justifiable cause for the claimant's failure to participate in those services."

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________