2008 Minnesota Statutes

268.125 ADDITIONAL UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS.

Subdivision 1.Additional unemployment benefits; when available.

Additional unemployment benefits are available if:

(1) a county had a total unemployment rate for the prior 12-calendar month period of at least 1.8 times the state average unemployment rate for the prior 12-calendar month period and the state average unemployment rate for the same 12-calendar month period was at least 4.6 percent. The commissioner must calculate the applicable unemployment rates within 30 calendar days following the end of the month. Once it has been calculated that the total unemployment rate in a county equals or exceeds 1.8 times the state average unemployment rate for the prior 12-calendar month period, the additional benefits are available beginning the Sunday following the date of calculation and continuing for a minimum of 13 calendar weeks. This clause expires June 30, 2009; or

(2)(i) at a facility that had 100 or more employees, the employer reduced operations, resulting within a one-month period in the layoff of 50 percent or more of the facility's work force, including reductions caused as a result of a major natural disaster declared by the president;

(ii) the employer has no expressed plan to resume operations that would lead to the reemployment of those employees in the immediate future; and

(iii) the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the county that the facility is located was ten percent or more during the month of the reduction or any of the three months before or after the month of the reduction.

Subd. 2.Payment from trust fund; effect on employer.

Additional unemployment benefits are payable from the trust fund. Additional unemployment benefits paid will not be used in computing the experience rating of a taxpaying employer nor charged to the reimbursing account of a nonprofit or government employer. This subdivision expires June 30, 2009.

Subd. 3.Eligibility conditions.

An applicant is eligible to receive additional unemployment benefits for any week during the applicant's benefit year if:

(1) for any week during which benefits are available under subdivision 1, clause (1):

(i) the applicant resides in a county that meets the requirements of subdivision 1, clause (1), and resided in that county each week that regular unemployment benefits were paid;

(ii) the applicant was not paid unemployment benefits for any week in the 12 months before the effective date of the applicant's benefit account;

(iii) the applicant meets the same eligibility requirements that are required for regular unemployment benefits under section 268.069; and

(iv) the applicant has exhausted regular unemployment benefits under section 268.07, is not entitled to receive extended unemployment benefits under section 268.115, and is not entitled to receive unemployment benefits under any other state or federal law for that week. This clause expires June 30, 2009; or

(2) the applicant was laid off from employment as a result of a reduction under subdivision 1, clause (2), or was laid off because of lack of work from that employer during the three-month period before, or the three-month period after, the month of the reduction under subdivision 1, clause (2);

(3) the applicant meets the same eligibility requirements that are required for regular unemployment benefits under section 268.069;

(4) the applicant has exhausted regular unemployment benefits under section 268.07, is not entitled to receive extended unemployment benefits under section 268.115, and is not entitled to receive unemployment benefits under any other state or federal law for that week; and

(5) a majority of the applicant's wage credits were from the employer that had a reduction in operations under subdivision 1, clause (2).

Subd. 4.Weekly unemployment benefit amount.

An applicant's weekly additional unemployment benefit amount is the same as the applicant's weekly unemployment benefit amount during the current benefit year under section 268.07.

Subd. 5.Maximum amount of unemployment benefits.

The maximum amount of additional unemployment benefits available in the applicant's benefit year is one-half of the applicant's maximum amount of regular unemployment benefits available under section 268.07, subdivision 2, rounded down to the next lower whole dollar. Extended unemployment benefits paid and unemployment benefits paid under any federal law other than regular unemployment benefits must be deducted from the maximum amount of additional unemployment benefits available.

Subd. 6.Notice.

The commissioner must notify applicants of the availability of additional unemployment benefits by contacting applicants by mail or electronic transmission, by posting a notice on the department's official Web site, and by appropriate announcement. This subdivision expires June 30, 2009.

History:

1987 c 362 s 17; 1994 c 488 s 8; 1994 c 503 s 1-3; 1996 c 417 s 13-15; 1997 c 66 s 79; 2Sp1997 c 2 s 18,19; 1998 c 265 s 32; 1999 c 107 s 49-51,66; 2000 c 343 s 4; 1Sp2003 c 3 art 2 s 20; 2004 c 183 s 73; 2007 c 128 art 5 s 8; art 6 s 81,82; 2008 c 300 s 15-18