NEW: DLT Director Fogarty in Washington Thursday
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Rhode Island Director of Labor and Training Charles J. Fogarty is scheduled to testify Thursday at a U.S. Senate Committee on Finance hearing about the success of Rhode Island's WorkShare layoff aversion program.
Launched in Rhode Island in 1992, the WorkShare program allows eligible employees to work a reduced schedule while collecting partial unemployment insurance benefits, and is credited with averting more than 14,000 layoffs in Rhode Island since 2007.
U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), who recently introduced a bill to help both states and struggling families by extending unemployment insurance through 2012, is also the author of legislation at the heart of the hearing: the Layoff Prevention Act, which would provide incentives to encourage greater use of work sharing programs.
Reed's work sharing proposal -- which he originally proposed in 2009 and was included in President Obama's latest budget and in his jobs bill -- would bolster state-based work sharing programs. Currently adopted by 22 states and the District of Columbia, work sharing enables employers to reduce their workers' weekly hours and pay, with workers receiving partial unemployment assistance to make up some of the lost wages. Under work sharing, companies are able to remain competitive by lowering costs and keeping a skilled work force, employees keep their jobs, and state unemployment insurance systems are less burdened as fewer individuals need to avail themselves of full unemployment benefits.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, work sharing programs saved approximately 165,000 jobs in 2009 - nearly triple the number of jobs saved in 2008, and another 100,000 jobs in 2010. Multiple studies have found that countries that adopted more robust work sharing programs weathered the recent recession with lower unemployment rates.
Other witnesses testifying before this key Senate panel include: Dr. Stephen Wandner, Visiting Fellow, The Urban Institute, Washington, DC; Mr. Larry J. Temple, Executive Director, Texas Workforce Commission, Austin, TX; and Mr. Don Peitersen, Director of Unemployment Insurance and Workforce Projects, American Institute for Full Employment, Aurora, CO.
