Senate Bill No. 288
(By Senator Hunter, Rowe, Caldwell, Fanning, Mitchell, Bailey,
Edgell, Burnette, Minard, Anderson, Ross, Unger, Redd,
Wooton, Deem, Prezioso, Helmick, Kessler, Sprouse, Minear,
Love, Sharpe, McCabe, Bowman, Plymale and Tomblin, Mr.
President)
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[Introduced January 23, 2002; referred to the Committee
on Military; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend article six, chapter twenty-one-a of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated
section four-b, relating to unemployment compensation
benefits for members of the armed forces, state national
guard or any member of the reserves called for active duty.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article six, chapter twenty-one-a of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section four-b, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6. EMPLOYEE ELIGIBILITY; BENEFITS.
§21A-6-4b. Member of armed forces, state national guard, or
reserves considered employed while serving active
duty; renumeration for active duty not to be
deducted from unemployment compensation benefit.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter to the
contrary, the following provisions apply to an individual who is
a
a member of the United States armed forces, state national guard
or any reserve component of such forces:
(1) If that individual is employed under the provisions of
this chapter at the time he or she is called for active duty, he
or she shall be considered employed for the time that he or she
serves active duty;
(2) For the purposes of calculating unemployment benefits,
if that individual, who was employed at the time he or she was
called to active duty, and no longer has his or her employment
when he or she returns from active duty, that individual shall
be entitled to receive credit for wages earned for the time he
or she serves active duty at the rate of pay of his or her
employment before being called for active duty; and
(3) Remuneration which the individual receives for active duty by the armed forces or any reserve component of the armed
forces may not be deducted from the unemployment compensation
benefit to which he or she is otherwise entitled.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide members of the
armed forces, national guard or any reserve component, who was
employed when called for active duty and unemployed when
returning from active duty, to receive credit for wages earned
at the rate of their employment before being called to active
duty for consideration in unemployment benefits.
This section
is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.