Unemployment compensation bill is unneeded

SB 282 overlaps with existing law, could create confusion, Policy Matters testifies

The Ohio Senate has not passed legislation since the pandemic struck addressing the problems experienced by tens of thousands of jobless Ohioans when they tried to apply for unemployment compensation. More than half a million Ohioans are unemployed. Yet the Senate Insurance and Financial Institutions Committee is hearing Senate Bill 282 to solidify employers’ ability report complaints about unemployed workers not meeting benefit requirements. “Lawmakers should instead spend more time making sure if workers are laid off they can easily access adequate unemployment benefits,” said Policy Matters Research Director Zach Schiller.

Schiller today submitted written testimony in opposition to the bill, which called SB 282, “unnecessary and ill-timed legislation that does not sufficiently take existing state law into account.”

Besides focusing on the wrong issue, the bill is unnecessary because state law already requires a form to be available for employers who want to file such complaints. SB 282 also “could create confusion,” Schiller told the committee in written testimony, because it does not take into account existing state law which outlines requirements for such employer complaints. A number of those requirements were set out in a 1993 federal court order. “This bill should not be approved,” Schiller’s testimony said.