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An Act Regarding the Laws Governing Unemployment Compensation Benefits for Employees of Temporary Staffing Agencies
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 26 MRSA §1193, sub-§1, as amended by PL 2009, c. 33, §1, is further amended to read:
 
1. Voluntarily leaves work.  
 
A. For the week in which the claimant left regular employment voluntarily without good cause attributable to that employment. The disqualification continues until the claimant has earned 4 times the claimant's weekly benefit amount in employment by an employer. A claimant may not be disqualified under this paragraph if:
 
(1) The leaving was caused by the illness or disability of the claimant or an immediate family member and the claimant took all reasonable precautions to protect the claimant's employment status by promptly notifying the employer of the need for time off, a change or reduction in hours or a shift change and being advised by the employer that the time off or change or reduction in hours or shift change cannot or will not be accommodated;
 
(2) The leaving was necessary to accompany, follow or join the claimant's spouse in a new place of residence, and the claimant is in all respects able, available and actively seeking suitable work;
 
(3) The leaving was in good faith in order to accept new employment on a permanent full-time basis and the new employment did not materialize for reasons attributable to the new employing unit;
 
(4) The leaving was necessary to protect the claimant or any member of the claimant's immediate family from domestic abuse or the leaving was due to domestic violence that caused the claimant reasonably to believe that the claimant's continued employment would jeopardize the safety of the claimant or any member of the claimant's immediate family and the claimant made all reasonable efforts to preserve the employment; or
 
(5) The claimant's employer announced in writing to employees that it planned to reduce the work force through a layoff or reduction in force and that employees may offer to be among those included in the layoff or reduction in force, at which time the claimant offered to be one of the employees included in the layoff or reduction in force and the claimant's employer accepted the claimant's offer, thereby ending the employment relationship.
 
Separation from employment based on the compelling family reasons in subparagraphs (1), (2) and (4) does not result in disqualification.
 
B. For the duration of histhe claimant's unemployment period subsequent to histhe claimant's having retired; or having been retired from histhe claimant's regular employment as a result of a recognized employer policy or program, under which hethe claimant is entitled to receive pension payments, if so found by the deputy, and disqualification shall continuecontinues until the claimant has earned 6 times histhe claimant's weekly benefit amount in employment by an employer;
 
C. For the duration of an unpaid voluntary leave of absence or sabbatical leave that has been mutually agreed to by the employee and the employer.
 
For the purposes of this subsection, a temporary employee leaves employment voluntarily without good cause when that temporary employee fails to contact the employee's temporary staffing agency upon completion of the employee's most recent work assignment to seek additional work, unless good cause is shown for that failure, as long as the temporary staffing agency gives prior written notice to the employee that the employee is required to contact the agency at the completion of the most recent work assignment to seek additional work.
 
SUMMARY
This bill specifies that, for purposes of unemployment compensation benefit eligibility, the failure of a temporary employee to contact the temporary staffing agency upon completion of a work assignment to seek additional work is considered a voluntary job separation, as long as the temporary staffing agency gives prior written notice of this requirement to the individual.