Laid-off workers could be looking at stricter jobless-benefits rules

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Stricter rules for those collecting jobless benefits could soon be coming down the road.

The state Senate Committee on Labor and Regulatory Reform held a public hearing this week on a bill that would make it easier for the state’s Department of Workforce Development to collect debt related to jobless benefits and add more ways for claimants to be disqualified from receiving benefits.

The bill, named Senate Bill 399 and sponsored by Sen. Stephen Nass, R-Whitewater, contains various proposals put forward by the state’s Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council, a panel that advises lawmakers on changes to the state’s unemployment-benefits system.

Janell Knuston, DWD legal affairs director and the council chairwoman, said the bill is in part meant to close loopholes in some of the state’s unemployment-insurance statutes. She said the U.S. Department of Labor has reviewed the proposal to see if it could find any conflicts with federal law and has not been able to discover any.

The labor and management representatives all recommended that the bill be adopted by the state Legislature.

Among other things, the bill would:

• Change the ways that DWD can collect debt related to jobless benefits, including deleting a requirement that in order to hold someone personally liable for jobless-benefits contributions, that person must hold at least 20 percent ownership of a particular corporation. It also allows the DWD to sell property in any county by any means that will bring in the highest net price, including having an internet-based auction or sale.
• Make jobless benefits claimants ineligible for benefits if they conceal holiday, vacation, termination or sick pay. Current law already makes them ineligible if they conceal wages or hours worked.
• Change when benefits would stop for jobless-benefits claimants who fail to answer a DWD requests for information about their eligibility for the assistance. Under current law, claimants cannot collect benefits in any week that they failed to answer a DWD request and any week after that until they come into compliance. If a claimant later complies, that person may collect benefits for the week the failure occurred. The proposal changes the law so that benefits stop the week the department makes the request rather than the week the failure to respond occurs.
• Modify the state’s drug-testing statutes to give civil immunity to employers who send information to the DWD about people who fail or refuse to take a drug test.

The bill still has a ways to go before becoming law, although lawmakers typically adopt the council’s recommendations. The Senate Committee on Labor and Regulatory Reform still must vote on whether to recommend the bill. Once  that happens, the bill will go to the full Legislature. Follow @erikastrebel