Unemployment insurance: voluntary plans.

Existing law provides for the payment of disability compensation for the wage loss sustained by an individual unemployed because of sickness or injury, and finances that compensation by means of employee contributions at specified rates to the Disability Fund. Existing law requires the Director of Employment Development to approve any voluntary plan, subject to specified exceptions, for disability if the director finds that there is at least one employee and that specified requirements are met, including, among other things, that the plan will be in effect for a period of not less than one year, and, thereafter, continuously unless the director finds that the employer or a majority of its employees employed in the state covered by the plan have given notice of withdrawal from the plan. This bill would, through December 31, 2014, allow the director to approve a voluntary plan that is administered by a small-business-3rd-party administrator, as defined, that administers voluntary disability plans on behalf of its clients, subject to specified requirements.