Citations Affected: IC 6-8.1-8-8.7; IC 22-4; IC 31-25-4-31; IC 34-30-2.
Synopsis: Unemployment insurance. Excludes from remuneration of services, for the purpose of determining income that is deductible from unemployment insurance benefits, compensation made by a valid negotiated contract or agreement in connection with a layoff or plant closure, without regard to how the compensation is characterized by the contract or agreement. Excludes from deductible income a supplemental unemployment insurance benefit made under a valid negotiated contract or agreement. Includes in deductible income, for the purpose of determining an individual's unemployment insurance benefits, for a week in which a payment is actually received by an individual, payments made by an employer to an individual who accepts an offer from the employer in connection with a layoff or a plant closure. Includes in deductible income a portion of certain payments made by an employer to an individual in connection with a layoff or a plant closure, if the portion is attributable to a week and the week: (1) occurs after an individual receives the payment; and (2) was used under the terms of a written agreement to compute the payment. Specifies that a person, excluding a person who elects to retire in connection with a layoff or plant closure and receive pension, retirement, or annuity payments, who: (1) accepts an offer of payment or other compensation offered by an employer to avert or lessen the effect of a layoff or plant closure; and (2) otherwise meets the eligibility requirements; is entitled to receive unemployment insurance benefits in the same amounts, under the same terms, and subject to the same conditions as any other unemployed person. Authorizes payment to certain state educational institutions for specific training programs from the special employment and training services fund. Allows the department of workforce development to operate a data match system with financial institutions doing business in Indiana for use only in the collection of unpaid final assessments of employer contributions for the state's unemployment insurance system. Makes conforming amendments. (This conference committee report: (1) adds language that excludes from remuneration of services, for the purpose of determining income that is deductible from unemployment insurance benefits, compensation made by a valid negotiated contract or agreement in connection with a layoff or plant closure, without regard to how the compensation is characterized by the contract or agreement; (2) adds language that excludes from deductible income a supplemental unemployment insurance benefit made under a valid negotiated contract or agreement; (3) adds language that includes in deductible income, for the purpose of determining an individual's unemployment insurance benefits, for a week in which a payment is actually received by
an individual, payments made by an employer to an individual who accepts an offer from
the employer in connection with a layoff or a plant closure; (4) adds language that includes
in deductible income a portion of certain payments made by an employer to an individual
in connection with a layoff or a plant closure, if the portion is attributable to a week and
the week: (A) occurs after an individual receives the payment; and (B) was used under the
terms of a written agreement to compute the payment; (5) adds language that specifies that
a person, excluding a person who elects to retire in connection with a layoff or plant closure
and receive pension, retirement, or annuity payments, who: (A) accepts an offer of payment
or other compensation offered by an employer to avert or lessen the effect of a layoff or
plant closure; and (B) otherwise meets the eligibility requirements; is entitled to receive
unemployment insurance benefits in the same amounts, under the same terms, and subject
to the same conditions as any other unemployed person; (6) changes language concerning
the amounts paid from the special employment and training services fund for specific
training programs as follows: (A) increases from $250,000 to $1 million the annual amount
received by Vincennes University; (B) increases from $1 million to $4 million the annual
amount received by Ivy Tech Community College; (C) pays $250,000 to each institution for
journeyman upgrade training; and (D) increases from 2% to 10% the amount that each
institution may retain to pay the costs of administering the funds; (7) removes language
that requires and adds language that allows the department of workforce development
(department) to operate a data match system; (8) adds a provision providing that an officer
or employee of the department, or an officer or employee of a person or entity that is acting
on behalf of the department, who knowingly or intentionally discloses for a purpose other
than the collection of unpaid final assessments for contributions to the state's
unemployment insurance system information provided by a financial institution that is
confidential under the department's data match system commits a Class A misdemeanor;
(9) removes a provision that assigns to the pension management oversight commission the
study of certain age discrimination issues; (10) removes provisions that require the
superintendent of the state police department to: (A) negotiate terms of a memorandum of
understanding (memorandum) concerning a pilot project for the enforcement of federal
immigration and customs laws; and (B) designate appropriate law enforcement officers to
be trained under the memorandum; (11) removes provisions that prohibit an employer
from knowingly hiring, after September 30, 2009, an unauthorized alien; (12) removes
provisions that authorize the attorney general to investigate complaints and a prosecuting
attorney to file a civil action against an employer for knowingly hiring an unauthorized
alien; (13) removes provisions that prohibit a state agency or political subdivision from
entering into or renewing a public contract for services with a contractor if the state agency
or political subdivision knows that the contractor employs or contracts with unauthorized
aliens; (13) removes criminal provisions concerning the transporting, moving, concealing,
harboring, or shielding from detection of aliens; and (14) removes provisions that require
the department to verify the lawful presence of certain individuals to determine the
individual's eligibility for unemployment benefits through the SAVE program.)
Effective: March 15, 2008 (retroactive).
MR. SPEAKER:
Your Conference Committee appointed to confer with a like committee from the Senate
upon Engrossed Senate Amendments to Engrossed House Bill No. 1219 respectfully reports
that said two committees have conferred and agreed as follows to wit:
that the House recede from its dissent from all Senate amendments and that
the House now concur in all Senate amendments to the bill and that the bill
be further amended as follows:
Delete everything after the enacting clause and insert the following:
established by IC 31-25-3-1 shall regularly make reports
submitted under IC 31-25-4-31(c)(2) available accessible to the
department or its agents for use only in tax judgment and levy
administration.
(d) The information required under subsection (b) must:
(1) be provided on a quarterly basis; and
(2) include the:
(A) name;
(B) address of record; and
(C) either:
(i) the Social Security number; or
(ii) tax identification number;
of individuals identified under subsection (b).
(e) When the department determines that the information required
under subsection (d)(2) is identical for an individual who holds an
account with a financial institution and an individual against whom a
levy may be issued by the department or a county treasurer, the
department or its agents shall provide a notice of the match, in
compliance with section 4 of this chapter, if action is to be initiated to
levy or encumber the account.
(f) This section does not preclude a financial institution from
exercising its right to:
(1) charge back or recoup a deposit to an account; or
(2) set off from an account held by the financial institution in
which the individual has an interest in any debts owed to the
financial institution that existed before:
(A) the state's levy; and
(B) notification to the financial institution of the levy.
(g) A financial institution ordered to block or encumber an account
under this section is entitled to collect its normally scheduled account
activity fees to maintain the account during the period the account is
blocked or encumbered.
(h) All information provided by a financial institution under this
section is confidential and is available only to the department or its
agents for use only in levy collection activities.
(i) A financial institution providing information required under this
section is not liable for:
(1) disclosing the required information to the department or the
child support bureau established by IC 31-25-3-1;
(2) blocking or surrendering an individual's assets in response to
a levy imposed under this section by:
(A) the department; or
(B) a person or an entity acting on behalf of the department; or
(3) any other action taken in good faith to comply with this
section.
(j) A person or an entity that is acting on behalf of the
department is not liable for any action taken in good faith to collect
the state's levy under this section unless:
(1) the action is contrary to the department's direction to the
person or entity; or
(2) for information provided under this section, the person or
entity acts with:
(A) deliberate ignorance of the truth or falsity of the
information; or
(B) reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of the
information.
(j) (k) The department or its agents shall pay a financial institution
performing the data match required by this section a reasonable fee, as
determined by the department, of at least five dollars ($5) for each levy
issued to the financial institution.
(k) (l) This section does not prevent the department or its agents
from encumbering an obligor's account with a financial institution by
any other remedy available under the law.
remuneration paid or payable to an individual with respect to any week
by other than his the individual's base period employer or employers.
(c) For the purpose of deductible income only, remuneration for
services from employing units does not include:
(1) bonuses, gifts, or prizes awarded to an employee by an
employing unit; or
(2) compensation made under a valid negotiated contract or
agreement in connection with a layoff or plant closure,
without regard to how the compensation is characterized by
the contract or agreement.
(d) Deductible income does not include a supplemental
unemployment insurance benefit made under a valid negotiated
contract or agreement.
would in the absence of said money be available to finance
expenditures for the administration of this article, but nothing in this
section shall prevent said money from being used as a revolving fund
to cover expenditures necessary and proper under the law for which
federal funds have been duly requested but not yet received, subject to
the charging of such expenditures against such funds when received.
The money in this fund shall be used by the board for the payment of
refunds of interest on delinquent contributions and penalties so
collected, for the payment of costs of administration which are found
not to have been properly and validly chargeable against federal grants
or other funds received for or in the employment and training services
administration fund, on and after July 1, 1945. Such money shall be
available either to satisfy the obligations incurred by the board directly,
or by transfer by the board of the required amount from the special
employment and training services fund to the employment and training
services administration fund. No expenditure of this fund shall be made
unless and until the board finds that no other funds are available or can
properly be used to finance such expenditures, except that expenditures
from said fund may be made for the purpose of acquiring lands and
buildings or for the erection of buildings on lands so acquired which
are deemed necessary by the board for the proper administration of this
article. The board shall order the transfer of such funds or the payment
of any such obligation or expenditure and such funds shall be paid by
the treasurer of state on requisition drawn by the board directing the
auditor of state to issue the auditor's warrant therefor. Any such warrant
shall be drawn by the state auditor based upon vouchers certified by the
board or the commissioner. The money in this fund is hereby
specifically made available to replace within a reasonable time any
money received by this state pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 502, as amended,
which, because of any action or contingency, has been lost or has been
expended for purposes other than or in amounts in excess of those
approved by the bureau of employment security. The money in this
fund shall be continuously available to the board for expenditures in
accordance with the provisions of this section and shall not lapse at any
time or be transferred to any other fund, except as provided in this
article. Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit, alter, or
amend the liability of the state assumed and created by IC 22-4-28, or
to change the procedure prescribed in IC 22-4-28 for the satisfaction of
such liability, except to the extent that such liability may be satisfied by
and out of the funds of such special employment and training services
fund created by this section.
(b) The board, subject to the approval of the budget agency and
governor, is authorized and empowered to use all or any part of the
funds in the special employment and training services fund for the
purpose of acquiring suitable office space for the department by way
of purchase, lease, contract, or in any part thereof to purchase land and
erect thereon such buildings as the board determines necessary or to
assist in financing the construction of any building erected by the state
or any of its agencies wherein available space will be provided for the
department under lease or contract between the department and the
state or such other agency. The commissioner may transfer from the
employment and training services administration fund to the special
employment and training services fund amounts not exceeding funds
specifically available to the commissioner for that purpose equivalent
to the fair, reasonable rental value of any land and buildings acquired
for its use until such time as the full amount of the purchase price of
such land and buildings and such cost of repair and maintenance
thereof as was expended from the special employment and training
services fund has been returned to such fund.
(c) The board may also transfer from the employment and training
services administration fund to the special employment and training
services fund amounts not exceeding funds specifically available to the
commissioner for that purpose equivalent to the fair, reasonable rental
value of space used by the department in any building erected by the
state or any of its agencies until such time as the department's
proportionate amount of the purchase price of such building and the
department's proportionate amount of such cost of repair and
maintenance thereof as was expended from the special employment and
training services fund has been returned to such fund.
(d) (b) Whenever the balance in the special employment and
training services fund is deemed excessive by the board, the board shall
order payment into the unemployment insurance benefit fund of the
amount of the special employment and training services fund deemed
to be excessive.
(e) (c) Subject to the approval of the board and the availability of
funds, on July 1, 2008, and each subsequent July 1, the
commissioner may use not more than five shall release:
(1) one million dollars ($5,000,000) during a program year for
($1,000,000) to the state educational institution established
under IC 21-25-2-1 for training provided by Ivy Tech
Community College to participants in joint labor and management
apprenticeship programs approved by the United States
Department of Labor's Labor, Bureau of Apprenticeship and
Training; Of the money allocated for training programs under this
subsection, fifty percent (50%) is designated for industrial
programs, and the remaining fifty (50%) percent is designated for
building trade programs.
(2) four million dollars ($4,000,000) to the state educational
institution instituted and incorporated under IC 21-22-2-1 for
training provided to participants in joint labor and
management apprenticeship programs approved by the
United States Department of Labor, Bureau of
Apprenticeship and Training; and
(3) two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) for
journeyman upgrade training to each of the state educational
institutions described in subdivisions (1) and (2).
Each state educational institution described in this subsection is
entitled to keep ten percent (10%) of the funds released under this
subsection for the payment of costs of administering the funds. On
each June 30 following the release of the funds, any funds released
under this subsection not used by the state educational institutions
under this subsection shall be returned to the special employment
and training services fund.
financial institution that existed before:
(A) the department's warrant; and
(B) notification to the financial institution of the
department's warrant.
(g) A financial institution ordered to block or encumber an
account under this section is entitled to collect its normally
scheduled account activity fees to maintain the account during the
period the account is blocked or encumbered.
(h) All information provided by a financial institution under this
section is confidential and is available only to the department or its
agents for use only in the collection of unpaid final assessments
described in subsection (b)(2).
(i) A financial institution providing information required under
this section is not liable for:
(1) disclosing the required information to the department or
the child support bureau established by IC 31-25-3-1;
(2) blocking or surrendering an individual's assets in response
to a levy imposed under this section by:
(A) the department; or
(B) a person or an entity acting on behalf of the
department; or
(3) any other action taken in good faith to comply with this
section.
(j) A person or an entity that is acting on behalf of the
department is not liable for any action taken under this section in
good faith to collect unpaid final assessments described in
subsection (b)(2) unless:
(1) the action is contrary to the department's direction to the
person or entity; or
(2) for information provided under this section, the person or
entity acts with:
(A) deliberate ignorance of the truth or falsity of the
information; or
(B) reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of the
information.
(k) The department or its agents shall pay a financial institution
performing the data match under this section a reasonable fee, as
determined by the department, of at least five dollars ($5) for each
warrant issued to the financial institution.
(l) This section does not prevent the department or its agents
from encumbering an employer's account with a financial
institution by any other remedy available under the law.
(m) An:
(1) officer or employee of the department; or
(2) officer or employee of a person or entity that is acting on
behalf of the department;
who knowingly or intentionally discloses for a purpose other than
the collection of unpaid final assessments described in subsection
(b)(2) information provided by a financial institution that is
confidential under this section commits a Class A misdemeanor.
SECTION 52, IS AMENDED TO READ AS FOLLOWS [EFFECTIVE
MARCH 15, 2008 (RETROACTIVE)]: Sec. 6. (a) If, after due notice,
any employing unit defaults in the payment of any contributions or
other money payments required by this article, the amount due may be
collected by civil action in the name of the state of Indiana on the
relation of the department. Such civil action is not to be considered as
the exclusive method for collection of the contributions or money
payments but is in addition to the method provided in IC 22-4-29-2
through IC 22-4-29-12 IC 22-4-29-14 and is to be brought only in such
cases as the department may deem advisable in the interest of necessity
and convenience.
(b) Unless the employing unit prevails in a civil action brought
under this chapter, the court may award costs, including reasonable
attorney's fees, incurred by the state in bringing the action.
____________________________ ____________________________
Representative Tyler Senator Kruse
Chairperson
____________________________ ____________________________
Representative Koch Senator Arnold
House Conferees Senate Conferees