State senators said Wednesday that they want to make sure that workers who were fired cannot get state unemployment benefits in the future.
A Senate panel Wednesday advanced a bill that would prevent workers fired for misconduct from receiving any state unemployment benefits. Under current law, these workers can get jobless benefits for from five to 20 weeks, depending on the type and severity of their workplace infraction.
The fired workers still would be eligible for up to 58 weeks of federal unemployment benefits under the proposal.
“We are subsidizing poor behavior. If it weren’t a $50 million problem, it would be laughable. Instead, it’s sad,” said state Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, referring to the amount that one study said the state paid out last fiscal year to fired workers.
That money came under the spotlight after the state’s unemployment trust fund went bust due to the large number of jobless claims caused by the Great Recession. The federal government bailed out the trust fund, but S.C. employers are having to repay the borrowed money.
A panel of senators was told Wednesday that a Greenville farmer fired a farm manager for sleeping and drinking on the job, and using firearms on his property. The farm manager still received state unemployment benefits.
Sue Berkowitz, director of the S.C. Appleseed Legal Justice Center which advocates for low-income South Carolinians, said she was appalled too by the case of the farm manager.
But, she said, that case is likely an exception.
Berkowitz said she worries a change in state law will give employers an incentive to fire workers — and deny them state unemployment benefits, paid by employers — for one-time infractions, such as tardiness.
“Someone not showing up (for work) because they have a sick child, I don’t think you mean for that person to be disqualified permanently from receiving benefits,” Berkowitz told the senators. “For people who are hard working and have run into a problem that caused them to not be a good employee at that time, should we bar them from forever getting benefits?”
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Lee Bright, R-Spartanburg, now heads to the Senate’s full Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee for action.
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