Minnesota Session Laws - 2004, Regular Session

                            CHAPTER 257-H.F.No. 2799 
                  An act relating to employment; modifying state 
                  dislocated worker program provisions; amending 
                  Minnesota Statutes 2002, sections 116L.01, subdivision 
                  1; 116L.05, subdivision 4; 116L.17, subdivisions 1, 4, 
                  5, 6; 176.011, subdivisions 15, 16; Minnesota Statutes 
                  2003 Supplement, section 116L.17, subdivisions 2, 3; 
                  proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, 
                  chapter 116L; repealing Minnesota Statutes 2002, 
                  sections 116L.04, subdivision 4; 116L.17, subdivision 
                  7. 
        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
           Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 2002, section 116L.01, 
        subdivision 1, is amended to read: 
           Subdivision 1.  [GENERALLY.] For the purposes of this 
        chapter sections 116L.01 to 116L.17, the terms defined in this 
        section have the meanings given them. 
           Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 2002, section 116L.05, 
        subdivision 4, is amended to read: 
           Subd. 4.  [LEGISLATIVE RECOMMENDATIONS.] By January 15 of 
        each odd-numbered year, the board must submit recommendations to 
        the house and senate committees with jurisdiction over workforce 
        development programs, regarding modifications to, or elimination 
        of, existing workforce development programs under the board's 
        oversight and the potential implementation of new programs.  The 
        recommendations must include recommendations regarding funding 
        levels and sources. 
           Sec. 3.  Minnesota Statutes 2002, section 116L.17, 
        subdivision 1, is amended to read: 
           Subdivision 1.  [DEFINITIONS.] (a) For the purposes of this 
        section, the following terms have the meanings given them in 
        this subdivision. 
           (b) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of employment and 
        economic development. 
           (c) "Dislocated worker" means an individual who is a 
        resident of Minnesota at the time employment ceased or was 
        working in the state at the time employment ceased and: 
           (1) has been terminated permanently separated or has 
        received a notice of termination permanent separation from 
        public or private sector employment, and is eligible for or has 
        exhausted entitlement to unemployment benefits, and is unlikely 
        to return to the previous industry or occupation; 
           (2) has been terminated or has received a notice of 
        termination of employment as a result of any plant closing or 
        any substantial layoff at a plant, facility, or enterprise; 
           (3) has been long-term unemployed and has limited 
        opportunities for employment or reemployment in the same or a 
        similar occupation in the area in which the individual resides, 
        including older individuals who may have substantial barriers to 
        employment by reason of age; 
           (4) (3) has been self-employed, including farmers and 
        ranchers, and is unemployed as a result of general economic 
        conditions in the community in which the individual resides or 
        because of natural disasters, subject to rules to be adopted by 
        the commissioner; or 
           (5) has been self-employed as a farmer or rancher and, even 
        though that employment has not ceased, has experienced a 
        significant reduction in income due to inadequate crop or 
        livestock prices, crop failures, or significant loss in crop 
        yields due to pests, disease, adverse weather, or other natural 
        phenomenon.  This clause expires July 31, 2003; or 
           (6) (4) is a displaced homemaker.  A "displaced homemaker" 
        is an individual who has spent a substantial number of years in 
        the home providing homemaking service and (i) has been dependent 
        upon the financial support of another; and now due to divorce, 
        separation, death, or disability of that person, must find 
        employment to self support; or (ii) derived the substantial 
        share of support from public assistance on account of dependents 
        in the home and no longer receives such support. 
           To be eligible under this clause, the support must have 
        ceased while the worker resided in Minnesota.  
           (c) (d) "Eligible organization" means a state or local 
        government unit, nonprofit organization, community action 
        agency, business organization or association, or labor 
        organization. 
           (d) (e) "Plant closing" means the announced or actual 
        permanent shutdown of a single site of employment, or one or 
        more facilities or operating units within a single site of 
        employment. 
           (e) (f) "Substantial layoff" means a permanent reduction in 
        the workforce, which is not a result of a plant closing, and 
        which results in an employment loss at a single site of 
        employment during any 30-day period for at least 50 employees 
        excluding those employees that work less than 20 hours per week. 
           Sec. 4.  Minnesota Statutes 2003 Supplement, section 
        116L.17, subdivision 2, is amended to read: 
           Subd. 2.  [GRANTS.] The board shall make grants to 
        workforce service areas or other eligible organizations to 
        provide services to dislocated workers. as follows: 
           (a) The board shall allocate funds available for the 
        purposes of this section in its discretion to respond to large 
        substantial layoffs and plant closings.  
           (b) The board shall regularly allocate funds to provide 
        services to individual dislocated workers or small groups.  
        The initial allocation for this purpose must be at least 35 
        percent and no more than 50 percent of the actual collections, 
        including penalty and interest accounts, interest, and other 
        earnings of the workforce development fund during the period for 
        which the allocation is made deposits and transfers into the 
        workforce development fund, less any collection costs paid out 
        of the fund and any amounts appropriated by the legislature from 
        the workforce development fund for programs other than the state 
        dislocated worker program.  The board shall consider the need 
        for services to individual workers and workers in small layoffs 
        in comparison to those in large layoffs relative to the needs in 
        previous years when making this allocation. 
           (c) Following the initial allocation, the board may 
        consider additional allocations to provide services to 
        individual dislocated workers.  The board's decision to allocate 
        additional funds shall be based on relevant economic indicators 
        including:  the number of substantial layoffs to date, notices 
        of substantial layoffs for the remainder of the fiscal year, 
        evidence of declining industries, the number of permanently 
        separated individuals applying for unemployment benefits by 
        workforce service area, and the number of individuals exhausting 
        unemployment benefits by workforce service area.  The board must 
        also consider expenditures of allocations to workforce service 
        areas under paragraph (b) made during the first two quarters of 
        the fiscal year and federal resources that have been or are 
        likely to be allocated to Minnesota for the purposes of serving 
        dislocated workers affected by substantial layoffs or plant 
        closings. 
           (d) The board may, in its discretion, allocate funds 
        carried forward from previous years under subdivision 9 for 
        large, small, or individual layoffs. 
           Sec. 5.  Minnesota Statutes 2003 Supplement, section 
        116L.17, subdivision 3, is amended to read: 
           Subd. 3.  [ALLOCATION OF FUNDS.] The board, in consultation 
        with local workforce councils investment boards and local 
        elected officials, shall develop a method of distributing funds 
        to provide services for dislocated workers who are dislocated as 
        a result of small or individual layoffs.  The board method shall 
        consider current requests for services and the likelihood of 
        future layoffs when making this allocation.  The board shall 
        consider factors for determining the allocation amounts that 
        include, but are not limited to, the previous year's obligations 
        and projected layoffs.  After the first quarter of the program 
        year, the board shall evaluate the obligations by workforce 
        service areas for the purpose of reallocating funds to workforce 
        service areas with increased demand for services.  Periodically 
        throughout the program year, the board shall consider making 
        additional allocations to the workforce service areas with a 
        demonstrated need for increased funding.  The board shall make 
        an initial determination regarding allocations under this 
        subdivision by July 15, 2001, and in subsequent years shall make 
        a determination by June 15 reflect recent trends in the number 
        of permanently separated individuals applying for unemployment 
        benefits in a given workforce service area.  The board shall 
        evaluate and adjust obligations quarterly, based on a similar 
        method. 
           Sec. 6.  Minnesota Statutes 2002, section 116L.17, 
        subdivision 4, is amended to read: 
           Subd. 4.  [USE OF FUNDS.] Funds granted by the board under 
        this section may be used for any combination of the following, 
        except as otherwise provided in this section: 
           (1) employment transition services such as developing 
        readjustment plans for individuals; outreach and intake; early 
        readjustment; job or career counseling; testing; orientation; 
        assessment of skills and aptitudes; provision of occupational 
        and labor market information; job placement assistance; job 
        search; job development; prelayoff assistance; relocation 
        assistance; and programs provided in cooperation with employers 
        or labor organizations to provide early intervention in the 
        event of plant closings or substantial layoffs; 
           (2) services that will allow the participant to become 
        reemployed by retraining for a new occupation or industry, 
        enhancing current skills, or relocating to employ existing 
        skills, including classroom training; occupational skill 
        training; on-the-job training; out-of-area job search; 
        relocation; basic and remedial education; literacy and English 
        for training non-English speakers; entrepreneurial training; and 
        other appropriate training activities directly related to 
        appropriate employment opportunities in the local labor market; 
        and 
           (3) support services, including assistance to help the 
        participant relocate to employ existing skills; out-of-area job 
        search assistance; family care assistance, including child care; 
        commuting assistance; emergency housing and rental assistance; 
        counseling assistance, including personal and financial; health 
        care; emergency health assistance; emergency financial 
        assistance; work-related tools and clothing; and other 
        appropriate support services that enable a person to participate 
        in an employment and training program. with the goal of 
        reemployment; 
           (3) specific, short-term training to help the participant 
        enhance current skills in a similar occupation or industry; 
        entrepreneurial training, customized training, or on-the-job 
        training; basic and remedial education to enhance current 
        skills; and literacy and work-related English training for 
        non-English speakers; and 
           (4) long-term training in a new occupation or industry, 
        including occupational skills training or customized training in 
        an accredited program recognized by one or more relevant 
        industries.  Long-term training shall only be provided to 
        dislocated workers whose skills are obsolete and who have no 
        other transferable skills likely to result in employment at a 
        comparable wage rate.  Training shall only be provided for 
        occupations or industries with reasonable expectations of job 
        availability based on the service provider's thorough assessment 
        of local labor market information where the individual currently 
        resides or is willing to relocate. 
           Sec. 7.  Minnesota Statutes 2002, section 116L.17, 
        subdivision 5, is amended to read: 
           Subd. 5.  [COST LIMITATIONS.] (a) Funds allocated to a 
        grantee are subject to the following cost limitations: 
           (1) no more than ten percent may be allocated for 
        administration; 
           (2) at least 50 percent must be allocated for training 
        assistance as provided in subdivision 4, clause (2) (4); and 
           (3) no more than 15 percent may be allocated for support 
        services as provided in subdivision 4, clause (3) (2). 
           (b) A waiver of the training assistance minimum in clause 
        (2) (4) may be sought, but no waiver shall allow less than 30 
        percent of the grant to be spent on training assistance.  A 
        waiver of the support services maximum in clause (3) (2) may be 
        sought, but no waiver shall allow more than 20 percent of the 
        grant to be spent on support services.  A waiver may be granted 
        below the minimum and above the maximum otherwise allowed by 
        this paragraph if funds other than state funds appropriated for 
        the dislocated worker program are used to fund training 
        assistance. 
           Sec. 8.  Minnesota Statutes 2002, section 116L.17, 
        subdivision 6, is amended to read: 
           Subd. 6.  [PERFORMANCE STANDARDS.] (a) The board, in 
        consultation with representatives of local workforce councils 
        and local elected officials, shall establish performance 
        standards for the programs and activities administered or funded 
        under this section.  The board may use, when appropriate, 
        existing federal performance standards or, if the commissioner 
        determines that federal standards are inadequate or not 
        suitable, may formulate new performance standards to ensure that 
        the programs and activities of the dislocated worker program are 
        effectively administered. 
           (b) The board shall, at a minimum, establish performance 
        standards that appropriately gauge the program's effectiveness 
        at placing dislocated workers in employment, replacing lost 
        income resulting from dislocation, early intervention with 
        workers shortly after dislocation, and retraining of workers 
        from one industry or occupation to another. (a) The 
        commissioner, in consultation with the board, shall enter into 
        contracts with local workforce investment boards, including the 
        allocations determined by the board in subdivision 3.  Contracts 
        shall also require local workforce investment boards to report 
        participant data to the commissioner regularly, in order to meet 
        the requirements of this subdivision.  The commissioner shall 
        also enter into contracts with eligible organizations involved 
        with substantial layoffs or plant closings.  These contracts 
        shall require the eligible organizations to report participant 
        data to the commissioner regularly, in order to meet the 
        requirements of this subdivision. 
           (b) The commissioner and the board shall jointly establish 
        performance outcome measures for all local workforce investment 
        boards and eligible organizations involved with substantial 
        layoffs or plant closings.  The commissioner may request 
        additional information to calculate these performance measures. 
           (c) The commissioner and the board, in consultation with 
        local workforce investment boards and eligible organizations 
        involved with substantial layoffs or plant closings, shall 
        establish minimum standards for the performance measures 
        described in paragraph (b). 
           (d) Local workforce investment boards may establish and 
        report on additional performance outcomes based on unique 
        features of local labor markets and other geographic differences.
           (e) The commissioner shall provide a report to the 
        legislature by March 1 of each year on the previous fiscal 
        year's program performance using the data in paragraphs (b) and 
        (d) and analysis of whether local workforce investment boards 
        and eligible organizations involved with substantial layoffs or 
        plant closings are meeting the minimum standards described in 
        paragraph (c).  The commissioner shall inform any local 
        workforce investment board or eligible organization that does 
        not meet minimum performance standards in a given year of their 
        status. 
           Sec. 9.  [116L.19] [DEFINITIONS.] 
           Subdivision 1.  [APPLICABILITY.] The definitions in this 
        section apply to sections 116L.19 to 116L.976. 
           Subd. 2.  [COMMISSIONER.] "Commissioner" means the 
        commissioner of employment and economic development. 
           Subd. 3.  [DEPARTMENT.] "Department" means the Department 
        of Employment and Economic Development. 
           Sec. 10.  Minnesota Statutes 2002, section 176.011, 
        subdivision 15, is amended to read: 
           Subd. 15.  [OCCUPATIONAL DISEASE.] (a) "Occupational 
        disease" means a disease arising out of and in the course of 
        employment peculiar to the occupation in which the employee is 
        engaged and due to causes in excess of the hazards ordinary of 
        employment and shall include undulant fever.  Ordinary diseases 
        of life to which the general public is equally exposed outside 
        of employment are not compensable, except where the diseases 
        follow as an incident of an occupational disease, or where the 
        exposure peculiar to the occupation makes the disease an 
        occupational disease hazard.  A disease arises out of the 
        employment only if there be a direct causal connection between 
        the conditions under which the work is performed and if the 
        occupational disease follows as a natural incident of the work 
        as a result of the exposure occasioned by the nature of the 
        employment.  An employer is not liable for compensation for any 
        occupational disease which cannot be traced to the employment as 
        a direct and proximate cause and is not recognized as a hazard 
        characteristic of and peculiar to the trade, occupation, 
        process, or employment or which results from a hazard to which 
        the worker would have been equally exposed outside of the 
        employment.  
           (b) If immediately preceding the date of disablement or 
        death, an employee was employed on active duty with an organized 
        fire or police department of any municipality, as a member of 
        the Minnesota State Patrol, conservation officer service, state 
        crime bureau, as a forest officer by the Department of Natural 
        Resources, state correctional officer, or sheriff or full-time 
        deputy sheriff of any county, and the disease is that of 
        myocarditis, coronary sclerosis, pneumonia or its sequel, and at 
        the time of employment such employee was given a thorough 
        physical examination by a licensed doctor of medicine, and a 
        written report thereof has been made and filed with such 
        organized fire or police department, with the Minnesota State 
        Patrol, conservation officer service, state crime bureau, 
        Department of Natural Resources, Department of Corrections, or 
        sheriff's department of any county, which examination and report 
        negatived any evidence of myocarditis, coronary sclerosis, 
        pneumonia or its sequel, the disease is presumptively an 
        occupational disease and shall be presumed to have been due to 
        the nature of employment.  If immediately preceding the date of 
        disablement or death, any individual who by nature of their 
        position provides emergency medical care, or an employee who was 
        employed as a licensed police officer under section 626.84, 
        subdivision 1; firefighter; paramedic; state correctional 
        officer; emergency medical technician; or licensed nurse 
        providing emergency medical care; and who contracts an 
        infectious or communicable disease to which the employee was 
        exposed in the course of employment outside of a hospital, then 
        the disease is presumptively an occupational disease and shall 
        be presumed to have been due to the nature of employment and the 
        presumption may be rebutted by substantial factors brought by 
        the employer or insurer.  Any substantial factors which shall be 
        used to rebut this presumption and which are known to the 
        employer or insurer at the time of the denial of liability shall 
        be communicated to the employee on the denial of liability. 
           (c) A firefighter on active duty with an organized fire 
        department who is unable to perform duties in the department by 
        reason of a disabling cancer of a type caused by exposure to 
        heat, radiation, or a known or suspected carcinogen, as defined 
        by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and the 
        carcinogen is reasonably linked to the disabling cancer, is 
        presumed to have an occupational disease under paragraph (a).  
        If a firefighter who enters the service after August 1, 1988, is 
        examined by a physician prior to being hired and the examination 
        discloses the existence of a cancer of a type described in this 
        paragraph, the firefighter is not entitled to the presumption 
        unless a subsequent medical determination is made that the 
        firefighter no longer has the cancer. 
           Sec. 11.  Minnesota Statutes 2002, section 176.011, 
        subdivision 16, is amended to read: 
           Subd. 16.  [PERSONAL INJURY.] "Personal injury" means 
        injury arising out of and in the course of employment and 
        includes personal injury caused by occupational disease; but 
        does not cover an employee except while engaged in, on, or about 
        the premises where the employee's services require the 
        employee's presence as a part of that service at the time of the 
        injury and during the hours of that service.  Where the employer 
        regularly furnished transportation to employees to and from the 
        place of employment, those employees are subject to this chapter 
        while being so transported.  Personal injury does not include an 
        injury caused by the act of a third person or fellow employee 
        intended to injure the employee because of personal reasons, and 
        not directed against the employee as an employee, or because of 
        the employment.  An injury or disease resulting from a vaccine 
        in response to a declaration by the Secretary of the United 
        States Department of Health and Human Services under the Public 
        Health Service Act to address an actual or potential health risk 
        related to the employee's employment is an injury or disease 
        arising out of and in the course of employment. 
           [EFFECTIVE DATE.] This section is effective January 24, 
        2003. 
           Sec. 12.  [REPEALER.] 
           Minnesota Statutes 2002, sections 116L.04, subdivision 4; 
        and 116L.17, subdivision 7, are repealed. 
           Presented to the governor May 18, 2004 
           Signed by the governor May 25, 2004, 10:40 a.m.