Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards issued Proclamation JBE 20-27 to temporarily waive the state's unemployment insurance (UI) law to make UI benefits available to employees affected by the COVID-19 emergency. The Proclamation waives the work-search requirement and the one-week waiting period for receiving UI benefits and directs that COVID-19 UI benefits not be charged to employers' accounts.

The relief provided by the proclamation differs from that provided by many other states in that it specifically requires that employees receiving COVID-19-related UI benefits to continue to be able and available for work.

Details of Proclamation JBE 20-27

Proclamation JBE 20-27 provides temporary relief from the state's UI law provisions pursuant to the COVID-19 emergency as follows:

• When COVID-19 UI benefits apply. An emergency-related claim for purposes of the temporary waiver of certain UI provisions means claims for UI filed by persons whose unemployment is directly due to the impact of COVID-19 or due to their inability to get to their job or worksite because they are sick, isolated or quarantined, caring for a sick family member or a child whose school is closed as determined by the administrator of the state's unemployment compensation program (i.e., the executive director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission).
• Noncharging of employer UI account for COVID-19 related benefits. La. R.S. 23:1533, which provides for claimants' benefits to be charged against base-period employers for purposes of their UI-tax experience rating and the protesting of such charges by employers, shall be suspended for emergency-related claims made during the effective period of the proclamation. La. R.S. 23:1552, which provides for the charging of claimants' benefits to certain employers, is also suspended for emergency-related claims made during the effective period of the proclamation.
• UI claimant requirements. La. R.S. 23:1600(2) and (3) are suspended while the Proclamation is in effect for emergency-related claims to the extent that they require claimants to register and search for work, but the requirements in La. R.S. 23:1600(2) that claimants continue to report at an employment office in the manner prescribed by the administrator, and in La. R.S. 23:1600(3) that claimants be able to work and be available for work, are not waived. The requirement to continue to report at an employment office, which is accomplished through either an automated telephone system or the Internet, is not impractical and avoids overpayments, which claimants would be liable to repay.

Access the COVID-19 unemployment insurance resources here.

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