Panel supports bill on employer relief

An Arkansas Senate committee Monday endorsed a bill that would allow the director of the Division of Workforce Services to not charge employers for paid unemployment benefits claimed, starting the week ending April 4, 2020, under certain circumstances.

Under House Bill 1212 by Rep. Jack Ladyman, R-Jonesboro, the division’s director would not charge employers for the payment of benefits resulting from the governor declaring a disaster emergency under the Arkansas Emergency Services Act of 1974 or from a disaster resulting in a state or federal disaster declaration.

In exercising discretion to not charge employer accounts, the Workforce Services director “shall act in a uniform manner with respect to all charges to employers for benefits” resulting from the aforementioned situations. An amended version of the bill cleared the Senate Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor.

Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, who is the Senate sponsor of HB1212, said the bill is a response to concerns raised by small businesses, such as barbers, hair salons and restaurants, that were ordered by government to shut down and “their unemployment … skyrocketed during that second quarter of 2020.”

“Clearly, that second quarter impacted what they will be paying [in unemployment insurance rates] in 2021 and the only way that we can adjust that is by passing this legislation, so that those small businesses that the government ordered to close, that those second quarter unemployment numbers would not be counted against them for their 2021 rates for this year,” she said.