HB4: AN ACT relating to unemployment insurance.

Legislative Summary

Amend KRS 341.005 to define "enhanced federal benefits" and "state average unemployment rate"; amend KRS 341.100 to define "suitable work" under certain circumstances; amend KRS 341.270 and KRS 341.272 to reduce the minimum period of time for an employer to qualify for a lower contribution rate to four quarters; amend KRS 341.350 to require that eligible recipients engage in five work search activities per week during each week that he or she claims eligibility for benefits; amend KRS 341.380 to change the maximum benefit payable to a worker within a benefit year; create a new section of KRS Chapter 341 providing for a variable duration of unemployment insurance benefits, ranging from 12 weeks to 24 weeks, based upon the state average unemployment rate at the time of each individual's application for benefits except in certain situations; create a new section of KRS Chapter 341 to allow an employer to notify the secretary of the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet about each worker who has declined suitable work or has failed to attend a first interview; amend KRS 341.370 to change the conditions under which a worker must be disqualified from receiving benefits during unemployment; create a new section of KRS Chapter 341 to allow the General Assembly to end the Commonwealth's participation in any enhanced benefits program; create a new section of KRS Chapter 341 to require the General Assembly's approval, which it may withdraw at any time, to participate in any enhanced federal benefits program; amend KRS 341.096 to define terms; create new sections of KRS Chapter 341 to allow employers to submit a plan for a shared work program to the secretary of the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet for approval; make employees eligible for shared work benefits if they are employed as members of an affected group, under an approved plan, are able to work, and their normal weekly hours are reduced at least ten percent but not more than forty percent; create a new section of KRS Chapter 341 explaining that the weekly shared work benefit amount shall be the product of the regular weekly unemployment compensation amount calculated in KRS 341.380 multiplied by the percentage of reduction of at least ten percent in the individual's usual weekly hours of work, and although an individual may be eligible for shared work benefits or regular benefits as appropriate, no individual shall be eligible for combined benefits in any benefit year in an amount greater than his or her maximum benefit as calculated under KRS Chapter 341.380 and no individual shall receive shared work benefits for more than 26 weeks; amend KRS 341.530, 341.080, 341.127, and 341.710 to conform; declare the provisions of this Act severable; allow the Act to be cited as the Unemployment Insurance Sustainability Act of 2022.