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Law360 (April 10, 2020, 9:08 PM EDT) -- The U.S. Department of Labor released a pair of memos Friday clarifying rules for employers reporting cases of COVID-19 and sketching out guidelines for a program meant to supplement unemployment benefits as the economy reels from the effects of the pandemic.
A woman checks the notices at an Illinois WorkNet Center in Arlington Heights recently. The U.S. Department of Labor issued two coronavirus-related memos Friday, including one about a program that supplements unemployment benefits. (AP)
However, these determinations still have to be made for health care, emergency response and correctional employees, the DOL said, and the agency could still enforce the reporting requirement in other instances if there's "objective evidence that a COVID-19 case may be work-related" and the employer knew or should have known about it.
"This enforcement policy will help employers focus their response efforts on implementing good hygiene practices in their workplaces, and otherwise mitigating COVID-19's effects, rather than on making difficult work relatedness decisions in circumstances where there is community transmission," the agency said.
In a separate memo, the DOL outlined guidance for state workforce agencies tasked with implementing a jobless benefits program called the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which was included in March's $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act.
The PEUC program funds states to provide up to 13 weeks of jobless benefits to those who have exhausted payouts from other programs. Beneficiaries must be actively looking for work, though the DOL said states can give some leeway with that requirement considering the pandemic has raised obstacles to job-seeking.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia, the son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, said in a Friday news release that the new guidance on the PEUC supplements other guidance his agency has given on the unemployment programs included in the CARES Act.
"The CARES Act provides valuable relief to American workers facing unemployment, including unemployed workers who may not otherwise be eligible for regular Unemployment Insurance benefits," Scalia said.
The DOL's Employment and Training Administration issued two letters earlier in April to state workforce agencies providing guidance about how to implement the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program as well as the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program.
The PUA program provides benefits to eligible people affected by COVID-19 who don't otherwise qualify for unemployment insurance benefits, such as independent contractors, people who are self-employed and those who work as part of the so-called gig economy, according to the DOL.
The FPUC gives eligible individuals who are already collecting certain unemployment insurance benefits an extra $600 per week in federal benefits through the end of July.
Those guidance letters came after an initial guidance from the department on April 2, which gave state workforce agencies a summary of the CARES Act and its various provisions.
--Additional reporting by Vin Gurrieri. Editing by Amy Rowe.
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