Unemployment insurance: use of information: public workforce development programs.

Under existing law, the information obtained in the administration of the Unemployment Insurance Code is for the exclusive use and information of the Director of Employment Development in the discharge of the director's duties and is not open to the public. However, existing law permits the use of the information for specified purposes, including to enable the California Workforce Development Board and other entities to access any relevant quarterly wage data necessary for the evaluation and reporting of specified workforce program performance outcomes as required and permitted by various state and federal laws, as specified. Existing law makes it a crime for any person to knowingly access, use, or disclose this confidential information without authorization. This bill would add a chief elected official of local workforce investment areas, as defined under federal law, to the list of entities permitted to use information obtained in the administration of the Unemployment Insurance Code for the purpose described above, and additionally to access any relevant quarterly wage data necessary for the evaluation and reporting of specified workforce program performance as required and permitted by various local laws, as specified. The bill would also require the Employment Development Department, among other things, to develop the minimum requirements for granting a request for disclosure of information for those purposes and a standard application for submitting a request for disclosure of information. The bill would require the department to approve or deny a request for disclosure of information within a specified time period and would require the department to make publicly available on its internet website specified information, including any denials for requests of disclosure of information. Because this bill would expand the group of persons who can be convicted for knowingly accessing, using, or disclosing this information without authorization, it would expand the scope of an existing crime and therefor impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 1095 of the Unemployment Insurance Code proposed by AB 1296 and AB 1340, to be operative only if this bill and either or both of those bills are enacted and this bill is enacted last.