An Act To Clarify Eligibility for Unemployment Benefits during Labor Disputes
Maine Legislature, Session 128, LD 1341
Committee: Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development
Sponsors: VOLK, VACHON, AUSTIN, LOCKMAN, STETKIS
Amends: 26 MRSA §1193

Legislative Document
No. 1341
S.P. 455
In Senate, April 6, 2017
An Act To Clarify Eligibility for Unemployment Benefits during 
Labor Disputes
Submitted by the Department of Labor pursuant to Joint Rule 204.
Reference to the Committee on Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development 
suggested and ordered printed.
HEATHER J.R. PRIEST
Secretary of the Senate
Presented by Senator VOLK of Cumberland.
Cosponsored by Representative VACHON of Scarborough and
Representatives: AUSTIN of Gray, LOCKMAN of Amherst, STETKIS of Canaan.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1.  26 MRSA §1193, sub-§4, as amended by PL 1997, c. 391, §1, is further 
amended to read: 
4.  Labor dispute.  For any week with respect to which the deputy, after notification 
by the Director of Unemployment Compensation under section 1194, subsection 2, finds 
that the claimant's total or partial unemployment is due to a stoppage of work that exists 
because of a labor dispute at the factory, establishment or other premises at which the 
claimant is or was employed, or there would have been a stoppage of work had 
substantially normal operations not been maintained with other personnel previously and 
currently employed by the same employer and any other additional personnel that the 
employer may hire to perform tasks not previously done by the striking employees. This 
subsection does not apply if it is shown to the satisfaction of the deputy that:  
A.  The claimant is not participating in or financing or directly interested in the labor 
dispute that caused the stoppage of work; 
B.  The claimant does not belong to a grade or class of workers of which, 
immediately before the commencement of the stoppage labor dispute, there were 
members employed at the premises at which the stoppage labor dispute occurs, any of 
whom are participating in or financing or directly interested in the dispute; 
C.  The claimant has obtained employment subsequent to the beginning of the 
stoppage of work labor dispute and has earned at least 8 times the claimant's weekly 
benefit amount in employment by an employer or has been in employment by an 
employer for 5 full weeks; 
D.  The claimant became unemployed because of a strike or lockout caused by an 
employer's willful failure to observe the terms of the safety and health section of a 
union contract; an employer's willful failure to comply in a timely fashion with an 
official citation for a violation of federal and state laws involving occupational safety 
and health; or the quitting of labor by an employee or employees in good faith 
because of an abnormally dangerous condition for work at the place of employment 
of that employee or employees; provided that the strike or lockout does not extend 
past the time of the employer's compliance with the safety and health section of the 
union contract, the employer's compliance with the official citation or the finding that 
an abnormally dangerous condition does not exist by a federal or state official 
empowered to issue official citations for violation of federal and state laws involving 
occupational safety and health; or 
E.  The claimant became unemployed because of a lockout by the employer.  For 
purposes of this subsection, the word "lockout" means the withholding of 
employment by an employer from its employees for the purpose of resisting their 
demands or gaining a concession from them. 
If in any case separate branches of work that are commonly conducted as separate 
businesses in separate premises are conducted in separate departments of the same 
premises, each department must, for the purposes of this subsection, be deemed to be a 
separate factory, establishment or other premises; 
SUMMARY 
This bill removes the provision of law affecting the disqualification for 
unemployment benefits of employees at an establishment at which there is a labor dispute 
and at which there would have been a work stoppage but for the employer's maintaining 
substantially normal operations through the use of other personnel.  It also broadens the 
disqualification from unemployment benefits in current law for unemployment that is due 
to a stoppage of work caused by a labor dispute by eliminating the requirement that there 
be a stoppage of work.  Instead, unemployment that is due to a labor dispute is sufficient 
grounds for a denial of benefits.  It also updates the language of the exceptions to this 
disqualification in current law to reflect the elimination of the stoppage of work 
requirement.