NJ Unemployment Law Amended Yet Again

On October 27, 2010,  NJ unemployment law received some administrative amendments.  Most notably, employers will no longer have their accounts charged when benefits are mistakenly paid becasue of a error by the Division of Unemployment and TDI.  However, since the Governor refused to sign the original bill presented, because it also forgave repayment by the faultless unemployed claimant of those misatken benefits, that provison was omitted from the final bill, PL 2010, c. 82.

Other changes include:

• As of December 1, 2010,  requring employer agents, oither than attoneys, to register with the Division and be regulated by the Division, which has the power to suspend or revoke the agent's registration for repeated violations.
• Increasing the time for appeals of final determinations, from 10 to 20 days after mailing.

All about partial unemployment

In an attempt to save jobs in these tough times, some employers have been forced to reduce hours for full-time workers.  Did you know that people who work part-time may be entitled to partial  unemployment benefits?   Well, they are in New Jersey, at any rate.  Maguire v. Bd. of Review, 2007 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 2053 (App.Div. May 29, 2007).

First, let’s look at the definitions under the statute:

An individual shall be deemed "unemployed" for any week during which:
(A) The individual is not engaged in full-time work and with respect to which his remuneration is less than his weekly benefit rate. N.J. S.A. § 43:21-19(m)(1).

And the regulations:

"Unemployment" means the state of being unemployed (that is, not having a job, out of work). An individual shall be deemed "unemployed" for any week during which he or she is not engaged in full-time work and with respect to which his or her remuneration is less than the individual's weekly benefit rate. N.J.A.C. 12:17-2.1.

For 2010, the weekly benefit rate is 60% of the average weekly earnings during the base year period, up to a maximum of $600. 

According to the 2009 DOL Employer Handbook,

PARTIAL BENEFITS - Individuals who work less than full time due to lack of work may be eligible for partial benefits. To be eligible for partial benefits, the individual must not be employed for more than 80% of the normal hours worked in the occupation. The partial weekly benefit amount payable is computed by subtracting the claimant's gross wages (fractional part of a dollar omitted) for the week claimed from 120 percent of the claimant’s weekly benefit rate . The partial benefit amount is computed to the next lower dollar, if not already a multiple thereof.

Putting these together, if a worker’s hours are cut by at least 20% and the worker does not earn at least $600/week, the worker is eligible for partial unemployment.

BTW, NJ law requires employers to give employees a notice and instructions on how to file for unemployment when workers are fired or laid off.   I think it would be a good idea to give it to someone whose hours have been reduced at least 20%, as well.

"Misconduct" to be re-defined in NJ unemployment law

The NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development is proposing to re-define "misconduct" in unemployment law, based on a case that came down when I was still in diapers. 

Here's the info, from 41 N.J.R. 3781:

The Department is proposing to amend N.J.A.C. 12:17-10.2, so as to replace the existing regulatory definition for the term "misconduct" with the definition of the term that appears in the leading case on the issue, namely, Beaunit Mills v. Division of Emp. Sec., 43 N.J. Super. 172 (App. Div. 1956). Specifically, N.J.A.C. 12:17-10.2(a) currently states that, "[f]or an act to constitute misconduct, it must be improper, intentional, connected with one's work, malicious, and within the individual's control, and is either a deliberate violation of the employer's rules or a disregard of standards of  behavior which the employer has the right to expect of an employee." The court in Beaunit Mills, however, defined an act that would constitute misconduct as, "an act of wanton or willful disregard of the employer's interest, a deliberate violation of the employer's rules, a disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has the right to expect of his employee, or negligence in such degree or recurrence as to manifest culpability, wrongful intent, or evil design, or show an intentional and substantial disregard of the employer's interest or of the employee's duties and obligations to the employer."


At some time during the history of the regulations between 1956 and the present, the Department evidently sought to paraphrase the court's holding in Beaunit Mills. However, in doing so, it does appear that some of the meaning of the court's definition for the term "misconduct" was lost. Consequently, again, the Department proposes to replace the existing definition at N.J.A.C. 12:17-10.1(a) with the above quoted definition from the holding in Beaunit Mills.

Unemployment Benefits Extended: Obama Signs Bill - Employment Law - Law and Daily Life

Unemployment Benefits Extended: Obama Signs Bill - Employment Law - Law and Daily Life

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