Unemployment insurance: work sharing plans.

Existing law provides for the payment of unemployment compensation benefits to eligible persons who are unemployed through no fault of their own. Existing law deems an employee unemployed in any week if the employee works less than their usual weekly hours of work for the employee's regular employer as the result of the employer's participation in a work sharing plan that meets specified requirements and has been approved by the Director of Employment Development, pursuant to which the employer, in lieu of layoff, reduces employment and stabilizes the workforce. Existing law requires an employer who wishes to participate in the work sharing program to submit to the director a signed, written work sharing plan application form that meets specified requirements. Existing law, until January 1, 2024, creates an alternative process for the submission and approval of employer work sharing plan applications. Existing law requires the Director of Employment Development to accept an application to participate in, or renew participation in, the work sharing program that is submitted electronically and requires the Employment Development Department to create a portal on its internet website for the provision and receipt of these applications. For work sharing plan applications submitted by eligible employers between September 15, 2020, and September 1, 2023, existing law requires that, upon approval by the director, they be deemed approved for one year, except as specified. Existing law requires the department to mail to an eligible employer a claim packet for each participating employee within 5 business days following approval of the application. Existing law also requires the department, among other things, to make online claim forms available to the approved employer for each participating employee within 5 business days following approval of the application if an employer submitted its work sharing plan application online. This bill would extend these provisions indefinitely, and would require the department to accept electronic signatures on all work sharing plan documents. The bill would, beginning September 15, 2020, require that work sharing plan applications submitted by eligible employers, upon approval by the director, be deemed approved for one year, except as specified.