Earlier this month, Ohio Rep. Mike Duffey (R-Worthington) introduced H.B. 37, which would create the SharedWork Ohio program — a plan that would “let employers cut workers’ hours 10 percent to 50 percent instead of dismissing them during troubled times,” Columbus Business First reports. Such a program would convert the typical layoff structure of certain workers losing 100 percent of their unemployment to a “factional layoff in which a larger subset of workers share the impact of a layoff but no one individual loses his or her job,” according to The Daily Reporter. Employers would reduce the number of hours for workers, and while workers would still receive their normal pay per hour, they would also collect “pro-rata unemployment while maintaining benefits,” the article said. The House passed a similar bill last spring, which then stalled “because of a delay in guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor on what states must include to comply with federal law,” Columbus Business First reports. For more, read the Columbus Business First story and H.B. 37.
H.B. 37 puts the work-sharing program back on the table
