CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Striking workers who are on picket lines voluntarily would not be eligible for unemployment benefits with a bill the state Senate has sent to the state House of Delegates.
“It’s important because the taxpayers, the people who pay into that (unemployment) fund, should not be subsidizing a strike,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Trump (R-Morgan, 15) during an appearance on Wednesday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
Later Wednesday, Trump spoke in favor of the bill on the floor of the state Senate before the Senate approved the bill with a 22-11 vote and sent it on to the House.
“Our bill distinguishes between a strike and a lockout,” Trump said. “It says clearly that, if employees are locked out, they are eligible to apply for and receive unemployment benefits.”
In questions of Trump, though, both Senate Minority Leader Roman Prezioso (D-Marion, 13) and Senator Mike Romano (D-Harrison, 12) argued the bill was unnecessarily redundant when compared to existing state law and placed unnecessary new burdens of proof on employees.
Both voted “no” on the bill.
“The burden’s always been on the employee to show that they’re locked out, but now we’ve created specific standards to prove that lockout,” Romano said. Meeting that burden of proof, in his view, would be more difficult if SB 222 becomes law.
“Nobody said that locked out employees were a drain on the unemployment fund,” Romano told his fellow Senators. “What’s a drain on our unemployment fund is our people aren’t working.”
In December, West Virginia’s unemployment rate was 5.9 percent compared with the national unemployment rate of 4.7 percent.
Trump conceded the bill does strip administrative judges of some discretion.
Here is part of the text of the bill:
A lockout is not a strike or a bona fide labor dispute and no individual may be denied benefits by reason of a lockout. However, the operation of a facility by non-striking employees of the company, contractors or other personnel is not a reason to grant employees of the company on strike unemployment compensation benefit payments. If the operation of a facility is with workers hired to permanently replace the employees on strike, the employees would be eligible for benefits.
For the purpose of this subsection, an individual shall be determined to leave or lose his or her employment by reason of a lockout where the individual employee has established that: (i) The individual presented himself or herself physically for work at the workplace and identified that he or she was reporting for and prepared to work on the first day of such lockout or on the first day he or she is able to present himself at the workplace or herself; and (ii) the employer denied the individual the opportunity to perform work.
Trump cited a fiscal note that indicated the bill could result in $177,000 in savings this fiscal year at a time when the unemployment fund has been propped up with help from the Rainy Day Fund.
“To me,” Trump said, “It’s a question of are we going to make sure that the money that’s paid into that unemployment compensation fund by taxpayers’ employers is preserved for the people whom we all agree truly deserve it?”
Wednesday was Day 15 of the 2017 Regular Legislative Session which continues through Saturday, Apr. 8.