24.11.204 DEFINITIONS

In addition to the terms defined in 39-51-201 through 39-51-205, and 39-51-1121, MCA, the following definitions apply to this chapter, unless context or a particular rule provides otherwise:

(1) "Additional claim" means a claim that is reactivated as provided in ARM 24.11.445(2) following one or more separations from insured work occurring subsequent to the filing of an initial claim or of a prior additional claim.

(2) "Adjudicate" means to make a determination, redetermination, or decision relative to an issue that exists on a claim.

(3) "Agent state" means any state from or through which an individual files an interstate claim for benefits against another state.

(4) "Appeal" means a request by an interested party aggrieved by a determination, redetermination, or decision for a review of the determination, redetermination, or decision at the next higher level of review.

(5) "Base period employer" means an employer from whom a claimant earned wages for insured work during the base period of the claim.

(6) "Calendar quarter" means any one of the following quarters in a year:

First - January, February, March

Second - April, May, June

Third - July, August, September

Fourth - October, November, December

(7) "Child" as used in 39-51-2111, MCA, means an individual under the age of 18, including an emancipated minor, or an adult with a disability who is dependent upon parent(s) or guardian(s) for food, shelter, living expenses, and other necessities.

(8) "Claim," as used in this chapter and in Title 39, chapter 51, MCA, unless the context or language clearly indicates otherwise, means an initial, additional, or reactivated claim for unemployment insurance benefits.

(9) "Claimant" means a person who has filed, or is in the process of filing a claim.

(10) "Claims processing center" means the center that provides unemployment insurance claims services to the public.

(11) "Commuter claimant" means an individual who customarily commutes across state lines from a residence in one state to work in a liable state.

(12) "Contribution rate schedule" means the schedule of contribution rates assigned to employers each calendar year based upon the ratio between the trust fund balance as of October 31 and the total wages in employment for the year ending June 30.

(13) "Days" means a specified number of consecutive days, not excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays except as provided in ARM 24.11.206.

(14) "Discharge," as used in 39-51-2303, MCA, means a termination of the work relationship between an employer and a worker initiated by the employer, for reasons other than a lack of work, whether or not in response to some act or omission on the part of the worker.

(15) "Educational credential" means a degree, diploma, certificate, transcript, report, document, letters of designation, marks, appellations, series of letters, numbers, or words which signify, purport, or are generally taken to mean enrollment, attendance, progress, or satisfactory completion of the requirements or prerequisites of a class, course or program of training, instruction, or study.

(16) "Educational institution," as used in 39-51-2108 and 39-51-2307, MCA, means any public, private, or nonprofit academic, vocational, technical, business, professional, or other school (including a home school), college, or university that offers educational credentials and/or educational services.

(17) "Educational service" means a class, course, or program of training, instruction, or study.

(18) "Full-time work" means insured work in which a worker is regularly scheduled to work 40 or more hours per week.

(19) "Good cause" means reasonably compelling circumstances which did not result from any act or omission on the part of the person or business entity claiming good cause and which could not be overcome by reasonable diligence.

(20) "Initial claim" means a request filed by a claimant for a determination of the claimant's potential entitlement to and eligibility for benefits.

(21) "Insured work" means employment, as defined in 39-51-203, MCA, including federal civilian service, federal military service, and services that constitute employment in any other state, but does not include those services enumerated in 39-51-204, MCA.

(22) "Interstate Benefit Payment Plan" means the plan approved by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) under which benefits are payable to unemployed individuals absent from the state (or states) in which benefit credits have accumulated.

(23) "Interstate claimant" means an individual who files an interstate claim for benefits under the unemployment insurance law of a liable state.

(24) "Issue" means any act, circumstance, or condition that has the potential to disqualify or make a claimant ineligible for benefits or to reduce the amount of benefits payable to a claimant.

(25) "Job attached" means a claimant is able and available and has a definite or approximate date of hire or recall to insured work at 30 or more hours per week.

(26) "Labor market area" means an economically integrated geographic area within which individuals can reside and find work within a reasonable distance or can readily change jobs without changing their place of residence.

(27) "Leave of absence" means a cessation of work due to reasons other than an on-the-job injury, requested by the worker and approved by the employer, with an understanding the worker will be returning to work for the employer.

(28) "Leaving work," as used in 39-51-2302, MCA, means:

(a) any permanent, long-term, or indefinite voluntary reduction in a worker's hours of insured full-time work for a particular employer initiated by the worker, whether or not the reduction occurs in response to an act or omission of the employer or is approved by the employer; or

(b) a cessation of employment initiated by the worker, which resulted from the worker's absence from work without an employer-approved leave of absence for:

(i) five or more consecutive work days due to a physical or mental condition, which prevented the worker from performing the essential functions of the job; or

(ii) three or more consecutive work days without the employer's permission for any other reason.

(29) "Liable state" means the state responsible for administering an interstate claim for benefits established by an individual under the law of the liable state.

(30) "Long-term" means that the circumstance in question will or may reasonably be expected to continue to exist substantially unchanged for a period of time exceeding six consecutive weeks.

(31) "Monetary determination" means a determination of a claimant's potential entitlement to benefits based upon the amount and distribution of wages in the claimant's base period.

(32) "Nonmonetary determination" means a decision involving an issue related to a claimant's qualification or eligibility for benefits, independent of claimant's monetary determination of benefits.

(33) "Offset" means the withholding of benefits that would otherwise be payable to a claimant for a compensable week of unemployment in order for the department to recover an overpayment.

(34) "Overpayment" means the amount of benefits paid to a claimant from a state or federal unemployment compensation fund that the liable state subsequently determines the claimant was not entitled to receive by reason of disqualification, ineligibility, or reduction in entitlement under the law of the liable state.

(35) "Participating state" means a state which has subscribed to the interstate reciprocal overpayment recovery agreement.

(36) "Part-time work" means insured work in which a worker is regularly scheduled to work less than 40 hours per week.

(37) "Permanent layoff" means an indefinite termination of the work relationship between an employer and a worker initiated by the employer due only to a lack of work for the worker to perform.

(38) "Recently lived" as used in 39-51-2111(5), MCA, means having lived with the abusive person for a period of time during the 12-month period immediately preceding the date the claimant left insured work or was discharged from insured work due to domestic violence or domestic abuse.

(39) "Recovering state" identifies a state that has received a request from another state to assist in the recovery of a benefit overpayment.

(40) "Reopened claim" means a claim that is reactivated as provided in ARM 24.11.445(2) when there have been no separations from insured work subsequent to the filing of an initial claim or of a prior additional claim.

(41) "Requesting state" means the state that has issued a final determination of benefit overpayment and requests another state to assist in recovering the outstanding balance from the overpaid individual.

(42) "Same work" means an offer by an individual's present employer of the same hours, wages, terms of employment, and working conditions.

(43) "Separation" means any reduction in a worker's hours of insured work for a particular employer.

(44) "Similar work" means work in the same occupation or a different occupation that requires essentially the same skills and knowledge as the worker's current or most recent employment but does not mean identical work.

(45) "State-approved training program" means a program the department determines is reasonably expected to lead to employment for a claimant and meets the criteria outlined by ARM 24.11.475.

(46) "Suitable work" means work the department determines a claimant is reasonably suited to perform by experience, education, or training. Suitable work is further described by ARM 24.11.485.

(47) "Suspension" means an abeyance of the work relationship between an employer and a worker initiated by the employer for disciplinary, investigative, or other reasons not including a lack of work for the worker to perform.

(48) "Temporary layoff" means a suspension of the work relationship between an employer and a worker initiated by the employer due only to a lack of work for the worker to perform and where the employer intends to recall the worker at such time as work becomes available, except for separations from temporary work as defined in ARM 24.11.454A.

(49) "Termination" means either a discharge or a permanent layoff.

(50) "Termination pay" means a payment from an employer to a claimant as the result of discharge or permanent layoff.

(a) Examples of termination pay include:

(i) severance pay;

(ii) separation pay;

(iii) wages in lieu of notice;

(iv) continuation of wages for a designated period of time following cessation of work or other similar payment; and

(v) payments made under an incentive, worker buy-out, or similar plan designed to produce a general or specific reduction in force by inducing workers to leave voluntarily or in lieu of involuntary termination, whether paid in a lump sum or incrementally over any period of time.

(b) Termination pay may include payment for accrued unused vacation, sick leave, or any other leave paid at or after termination from work.

(51) "Transferring state" means the state that transfers wage credits reported for a claimant to the liable state for use in determining the benefit entitlement of the claimant under the law of the liable state.

(52) "Trust fund" means the unemployment insurance fund created in 39-51-401, MCA.

(53) "Union attached" means a claimant is:

(a) able and available for work;

(b) a member in good standing of a labor union that operates an exclusive hiring hall; and

(54) "Valid claim" means an initial claim with base period wages of an amount sufficient to qualify the claimant for benefits under 39-51-2105, MCA, or under a comparable law of any other state, and which results in the establishment of a benefit year under 39-51-201, MCA, or under a comparable law of any other state, without respect to whether or not the claimant is otherwise qualified or eligible to receive benefits.

(55) "Valid notice" means a formal, unconditional, specific communication between an individual worker and an employer or authorized agent of an employer that provides notice of the date a worker intends to leave work voluntarily (quit) or notice of the date an employer intends to terminate a worker from employment.

(56) "Voluntary quit" means a worker left work with or without good cause attributable to the employment.

(57) "Wage credits" means the wages reported to a state unemployment insurance program that were paid to an employee.

(58) "Wage credits from another state" means the assignment or transfer of wage credits, under an arrangement under 39-51-504(1), MCA, to Montana or another liable state, pursuant to 20 CFR 609, 20 CFR 616, or 20 CFR 614.

(59) "Waiting week" means a week of total unemployment, as defined by 39-51-2101, MCA, for which a claimant must file a weekly payment request but is not entitled to receive unemployment insurance benefits, pursuant to 39-51-2104, MCA.

(60) "Week claimed" means any week with respect to which a claimant files a weekly payment request for benefits or waiting week credit.

(61) "Week ending date" is the date on which the Saturday of any week falls.

(62) "Week of unemployment" means any week of unemployment, as defined in the law of the liable state in which a valid claim is established.

(63) "Weekly payment request" means the filing by a claimant of a request for benefit payment or waiting week credit for any week within claimant's benefit year.

(64) "Work search contact" means a documented contact by a claimant with an employer or authorized agent that hires workers for work the claimant is qualified for and able to perform, and further described by ARM 24.11.453A.

(65) "Work week" or "week of work" is a week as defined in 39-51-201, MCA, in which the claimant earns wages that are covered by unemployment insurance.

History: 39-51-301, 39-51-302, MCA; IMP, 39-51-201, 39-51-401, 39-51-504, 39-51-605, 39-51-1218, Title 39, chapter 51, parts 21 through 25, MCA, 39-51-2601, 39-51-3201, 39-51-3202, 39-51-3206, MCA; NEW, 2000 MAR p. 3523, Eff. 12/31/00; AMD, 2002 MAR p. 1665, Eff. 6/14/02; AMD, 2006 MAR p. 916, Eff. 4/7/06; AMD, 2011 MAR p. 573, Eff. 5/29/11; AMD, 2013 MAR p. 413, Eff. 3/29/13; AMD, 2013 MAR p. 2144, Eff. 11/15/13; AMD, 2014 MAR p. 593, Eff. 3/28/14; AMD, 2016 MAR p. 2058, Eff. 11/11/16; AMD, 2018 MAR p. 638, Eff. 4/1/18.