'Shared Work' program gets lots of attention

Judging from the generous turnout for two meetings here yesterday regarding the Texas Workforce Commission's "Shared Work" unemployment benefits program, it appears layoffs are on the collective minds of area employers.

The good news to Amanda Nobles, director of the Kilgore Economic Development Corporation: These employers are concerned enough about the welfare of their employees that they took time to attend the meetings, sponsored by the TWC, Workforce Solutions of East Texas and KEDC.

Terry Felps, a TWC unemployment insurance specialist from Beaumont, explained Shared Work is one way employers can keep from completely laying off and losing important employees in a rough and tumble economy.

The Shared Work program, which is not new but is "one of the best kept secrets in Texas," helps an employer to reduce employees' hours, and thus expenses, but at the same time Shared Work pays those employees a portion of their lost wages.

A company does not have to be large to benefit from the program, but to enroll in Shared Work the company must plan to reduce at least 10 percent of its workers' hours by a minimum of 10 percent and maximum of 40 percent.

That 10 percent of employees can be 10 percent of a particular unit or units within the company or it can be 10 percent of the entire company, Felps said.

Shared Work is not applicable for part-time employees and does not include any loss of over-time wages.

For example, an employee earns $200 per 40-hour work week. The company plans a 20 percent reduction in hours, thus the employee will work only 32 hours.

An employer enrolled in Shared Work can expect TWC to pick up a portion of that employee's lost wages, in this case 20 percent because that is the percentage of the hourly reduction. Thus, the employee will receive his pay for 32 hours from his employer plus 20 percent of his gross pay, or $40, from TWC.

A company must file a Shared Work application along with a business plan with TWC at least 30 days prior to the day it plans to reduce employees' hours, which Felps said is one drawback of the Shared Work program.

He adds it generally doesn't take 30 days for an applicant's paperwork to be approved or disapproved, but TWC is "smothered with layoffs statewide," in part because of the overall economic downturn but also because of numerous job losses along the Gulf Coast due to Hurricane Ike.

If union employees are involved, the affected union must agree to the company's plan to use Shared Work, Felps said.

Also, if an employee quits, the company can hire a replacement and that worker will be included in its plan.

One plus of the program: If the company has reason to recall its workers full time to, say, fill an order, but then plans to return to reduced hours, it is not terminated from the Shared Work program and its employees are not penalized; they simply don't receive the TWC payment for that particular time period.

One plus for the employee: If he or she is industrious enough to get (or have) a separate parttime job, that income doesn't have to be reported to Shared Work and his or her TWC benefits won't be reduced, Felps said.

The Shared Work plan is good for one year, but at the end of that year the employer can again apply for another year. Employees do not individually file for Shared Work benefits and they do not receive these benefits if the employer is not enrolled in the program, Felps said.