SB 140

Current law, as enacted in

2019 Wisconsin Act 185

, requires the Department

of Workforce Development, when processing claims for unemployment insurance

benefits and evaluating work-share plans, to determine whether a claim or plan is

related to the public health emergency declared by the governor under Executive

Order 72. If a claim is so related, current law provides that the regular benefits for

that claim for weeks occurring after March 12, 2020, and before December 31, 2020,

not be charged to the employers' accounts in the unemployment trust fund or to the

employers directly, as is normally provided. Instead, the benefits for those weeks are,

subject to numerous exceptions, to be charged to other accounts. This bill provides

for this noncharging of benefits to continue through March 13, 2021, and requires

DWD to presume that an initial claim for benefit years beginning on or after March

15, 2020, through March 13, 2021, relates to the public health emergency declared

on March 12, 2020, by Executive Order 72 unless one of certain exceptions applies.

The bill provides that an employer is not required to submit a request for charging

relief for initial claims filed through March 13, 2021.