SLS 21RS-3297 ORIGINAL
2021 Regular Session
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 244
BY SENATOR JACKSON
UNEMPLOYMENT COMP. Requests the Louisiana Workforce Commission study its
processes used to determine if an unemployed worker is conducting an active search for
reemployment along with available measures to ensure enforcement.
1 A RESOLUTION
2 To urge and request the Louisiana Workforce Commission to study its work search
3 requirements for persons receiving unemployment benefits and to provide
4 recommendations for improving their effectiveness and strengthening of the
5 processes for confirming compliance or enforcing compliance in cases of failure to
6 comply.
7 WHEREAS, Louisiana's unemployment compensation system exists to provide
8 workers who are unemployed through no fault of their own temporary support as they
9 attempt to obtain employment again; and
10 WHEREAS, employers in agriculture, business, and industry pay taxes into a state
11 unemployment compensation fund via their individual experience-rated tax accounts to
12 provide benefits for their workers in the event their employment is discontinued due to
13 economic circumstances; and
14 WHEREAS, the COVID-19 pandemic caused serious disruption to agricultural,
15 business, and industrial operations across Louisiana, resulting in unprecedented numbers of
16 workers losing their employment in 2020 and historic levels of unemployment
17 benefit-claiming by affected workers, which overwhelmed the Louisiana Workforce
18 Commission's unemployment claims technology and personnel; and
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SLS 21RS-3297 ORIGINAL
1 WHEREAS, with the availability of vaccines to immunize individuals from the novel
2 coronavirus, Louisiana's economy, along with states around the country, is beginning to
3 recover from the effects of the pandemic; and
4 WHEREAS, the number of claimants for unemployment benefits is substantially
5 diminished this year from what it was during the second quarter of last year; and
6 WHEREAS, employers in agriculture, business, and industry are finally able to
7 reopen, engage with customers, receive orders, increase production, and perform services
8 but are experiencing difficulty finding the workers they need in order to do so, and in some
9 cases are precluded from even reopening their shops; and
10 WHEREAS, the Louisiana Workforce Commission has an enforcement obligation
11 under the law to conduct administrative reviews of any claims in which individuals'
12 continued unemployment is by their own choosing and to disqualify them from receipt of
13 benefits in such cases; and
14 WHEREAS, any failure to ensure that benefits are properly due and payable to
15 claimants has an adverse impact on individual employers' experience-rated tax accounts and,
16 in some instances, may even put the solvency of Louisiana's unemployment insurance trust
17 fund at risk.
18 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of Louisiana does hereby urge
19 and request the Louisiana Workforce Commission to conduct a comprehensive study of its
20 requirements and procedures related to unemployed individuals' search for work, as well as
21 make an inventory of the investigatory and enforcement tools at its disposal, review
22 measures existing in other states to address the verification of such work searches,
23 particularly those states that provide mechanisms and forms for employers to easily report
24 job offer refusals or failures to interview for positions, and ensure that sufficient protections
25 exist for those unemployed who are determined to have failed to conduct a proper work
26 search so that they may appeal and where found appropriate, have their benefits reinstated.
27 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Louisiana Workforce Commission shall
28 prepare and submit a final report that contains a detailed statement of its findings and policy
29 recommendations, including any proposed legislation, to the Senate Committee on Labor
30 and Industrial Relations no later than February 1, 2022.
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SLS 21RS-3297 ORIGINAL
1 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
2 secretary of the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Jerry J. Guillot.
DIGEST
SR 244 Original 2021 Regular Session Jackson
Requests the La. Workforce Commission to study its requirements and procedures related
to unemployed individuals' search for work, as well as make an inventory of the
investigatory and enforcement tools at its disposal, review measures existing in other states
to address the verification of such work searches, particularly those states that provide
mechanisms and forms for employers to easily report job offer refusals or failures to
interview for positions, and ensure that sufficient protections exist for those unemployed
who are determined to have failed to conduct a proper work search so that they may appeal,
and where found appropriate, have their benefits reinstated. Requires that commission
submit a final report that contains a detailed statement of its findings and policy
recommendations, including any proposed legislation, to the Senate Committee on Labor
and Industrial Relations no later than February 1, 2022.
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