Partial lay-off

JoanneB

Our company would like to decrease the hours of a few non-exempt employees and allow them to collect partial unemployment. Has anyone done this? Do the unemployment laws allow compensation based on reduced hours? We anticipate resuming full-time employment for these people within about 6 months.

Down_the_Middle

Your state unemployment laws will define "reduction in hours" and that should help guide you. In a number of states, I know the threshhold is 50%------a reduction in income that is less than 50% would not qualify for unemployment benefits.

bsa

Several years ago, we did a temporary lay off that allowed our employees to collect unemployment until we called them back. It was the least painful for all involved. The company didn't have the payroll expense and the employees weren't totally without funds to live on (they knew they would be called back). It did cause a small increase in our unemployment rate, but it was almost insignificant to the big picture.

Carol CA

We did a partial lay off with our production workers a couple of years back. I am in California, and what we did was contact the EDD (Unemployment Dept) and work with them on a special plan. Our employees would work 32 hours (Mon - Thurs) and be "layed off" every Friday. They received "unemployment" for Friday. We continued this for a few months until we were able to resume a full time schedule again. For those employees who had a lot of vacation, we also allowed them to take either 4 or 8 hours on Fridays if they wanted to. It worked out very well and in the end the employees didn't mind the three-day weekends too much as they did receive partial pay. I'd suggest contacting your local agency immediately to get the ball rolling as advance notice is required.