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RAILROAD UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE ACTS

[PUBLIC NO. 722-75TH CONGRESS]

[CHAPTER 680-3D SESSION]

[H. R. 10127]

AN ACT

To regulate interstate commerce by establishing an unemployment insurance system for individuals employed by certain employers engaged in interstate commerce, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

DEFINITIONS

SECTION 1. For the purposes of this Act, except when used in amending the provisions of other Acts—

(a) The term "employer" means any carrier (as defined in subsection (b) of this section), and any company which is directly or indirectly owned or controlled by one or more such carriers or under common control therewith, and which operates any equipment or facility or performs any service (except trucking service, casual service, and the casual operation of equipment or facilities) in connection with the transportation of passengers or property by railroad, or the receipt, delivery, elevation, transfer in transit, refrigeration or icing, storage, or handling of property transported by railroad, and any receiver, trustee, or other individual or body, judicial or otherwise, when in the possession of the property or operating all or any part of the business of any such employer: Provided, however, That the term "employer" shall not include any street, interurban, or suburban electric railway, unless such railway is operating as a part of a general steam-railroad system of transportation, but shall not exclude any part of the general steam-railroad system of transportation now or hereafter operated by any other motive power. The Interstate Commerce Commission is hereby authorized and directed upon request of the Board, or upon complaint of any party interested, to determine after hearing whether any line operated by electric power falls within the terms of this proviso. The term "employer" shall also include railroad associations, traffic associations, tariff bureaus, demurrage bureaus, weighing and inspection bureaus, collection agencies, and other associations, bureaus, agencies, or organizations controlled and maintained wholly or principally by two or more employers as hereinbefore defined and engaged in the performance of services in connection with or incidental to railroad transportation; and railway labor organizations, national in scope, which have been or may be organized in accordance with the provisions of the Railway Labor Act, and their State and National legislative committees and their general committees and their insurance departments and their local lodges and divisions, established pursuant to the constitution and bylaws of such organizations.

(b) The term "carrier" means an express company, sleeping-car company, or carrier by railroad, subject to part I of the Interstate Commerce Act.

(c) The term "company" includes corporations, associations, and joint-stock companies.

(d) The term "employee" (except when used in phrases establishing a different meaning) means any individual who is or has been (i) in the service of one or more employers for compensation, or (ii) an employee representative. The term "employee" shall include an employee of a local lodge or division defined as an employer in section 1 (a) only if he was in the service of a carrier on or after August 29, 1935. The term "employee" includes an officer of an employer.

An individual is in the service of an employer whether his service is rendered within or without the United States if he is subject to the continuing authority of the employer to supervise and direct the manner of rendition of his service, which service he renders for compensation: Provided, however, That an individual shall be deemed to be in the service of an employer not conducting the principal part of its business in the United States only when he is rendering service to it in the United States.

(e) The term "employee representative" means any officer or official representative of a railway labor organization other than a labor organization included in the term employer as defined in section 1 (a) who before or after August 29, 1935, was in the service of an employer as defined in section 1 (a) and who is duly authorized and designated to represent employees in accordance with the Railway Labor Act, and any individual who is regularly assigned to or regularly employed by such officer or official representative in connection with the duties of his office.

(f) The term "part-time worker" means any employee whose contract of hire (i) provides for regular employment for less than the normal number of hours per day, or less than the normal number of days per month, or both, prevailing for the class of service which he renders to one or more employers, and (ii) does not provide that he shall be continuously subject to call for service for the normal number of hours per day and the normal number of days per month prevailing for the class of service which he renders.

(g) The term "employment" means service performed as an employee.

(h) The term "half-month" means a period of any fifteen consecutive days; but, with respect to any individual no day shall be included in more than one half-month.

(i) The term "compensation" means any form of money, remuneration, including pay for time lost but excluding tips, payable for services rendered as an employee to one or more employers, or as an employee representative: Provided, however, That in computing the compensation payable to any employee with respect to any calendar month, no part of any compensation in excess of $300 shall be recognized.

(j) The term "remuneration" means pay for services for hire, including pay for time lost, and tips, but pay for time lost shall be

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deemed earned on the day on which such time is lost. The term "remuneration" does not include (i) the voluntary payment by another, without deduction from the pay of an employee, of any tax or contribution now or hereafter imposed with respect to the remuneration of such employee, or (ii) any money payments received pursuant to any nongovernmental plan for unemployment insurance.

(k) Subject to the provisions of section 4 of this Act, a day of unemployment, with respect to any employee, means a calendar day -on which he is able to work and is available for work and with respect to which (i) no remuneration is payable to him, and (ii) he has, in accordance with such regulations as the Board may prescribe, registered at an employment office: Provided, however, That with respect to a part-time worker a calendar day on which he is not normally employed shall not constitute a day of unemployment: And provided further, That, with respect to any employee whose normal work shift includes a part of each of two consecutive calendar days, the term "calendar day”, as heretofore used in this subsection, shall mean such equivalent period of twenty-four hours as the Board may by regulation prescribe.

(1) The term "base year" means the year with respect to which an employee's compensation is used in determining his qualification for, and the amounts of, benefits; and, with respect to any employee, shall be the last completed calendar year before the beginning of his benefit year if his benefit year begins on or after July 1 of any calendar year, and the next to the last completed calendar year before the beginning of his benefit year if his benefit year begins before July 1 any calendar year.

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(m) The term "benefits" (except when used in the term “unemployment benefits") means the money payments payable to an employee as provided in this Act, with respect to his unemployment.

(n) The term "benefit year", with respect to any employee, means the twelve-months period which begins with the first day with respect to which benefits are first payable to him, and thereafter the twelvemonths period which begins with the first day with respect to which benefits are next payable to him after the termination of his last preceding benefit year.

(0) The term "employment office" means a free employment office operated by the Board, or designated as such by the Board pursuant to section 12 (i) of this Act.

(p) The term "account" means the railroad unemployment insurance account established pursuant to section 10 of this Act in the unemployment trust fund.

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(q) The term "fund" means the railroad unemployment insurance administration fund, established pursuant to section 11 of this Act. The term "Board" means the Railroad Retirement Board. The term "United States", when used in a geographical sense, means the States, Alaska, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia. (t) The term "State" means any of the States, Alaska, Hawaii, or the District of Columbia.

(u) Any reference in this Act to any other Act of Congress, including such reference in amendments to other Acts, includes a reference to such other Act as amended from time to time.

BENEFITS

SEC. 2. (a) Except as may otherwise be prescribed for part-time workers pursuant to subsection (d) of this section, a qualified employee shall be paid benefits for each day of unemployment in excess of seven during any half-month which begins after June 30,

1939.

The benefits payable to any such employee for each such day of unemployment shall be the amount appearing in the following table in column II on the line on which, in column I, appears the compensation-range containing the total amount of compensation payable to him with respect to employment in his base year:

Column I

Total compensation $150 to $199.99__. $200 to $474.99_.

$475 to $749.99.

$750 to $1,024.99–
$1,025 to $1,299.99_.

$1,300 and over.

Column II Daily benefit amount

$1.75

2.00

2.25

2.50

2.75

3.00

(b) The benefits provided for in this section shall be paid to an employee at such reasonable intervals as the Board may prescribe. (c) The maximum benefits payable to an employee for unemployment within his benefit year shall not exceed eighty times the daily benefits payable to him.

(d) The Board shall prescribe regulations for determining the amount of daily benefits, and the maximum benefits during any benefit year, to be payable to part-time workers and for determining the days of unemployment with respect to which such benefits shall be payable. Such regulations shall provide benefits reasonably proportionate to the benefits hereinbefore provided for other employees, with due regard to the compensation payable per month to a parttime worker with respect to his part-time employment, as compared with the compensation per month prevailing in the same locality for employees employed by employers for the full-time hours or days per month prevailing in the locality for the same class of service. Such regulations shall provide also for the payment of such benefits to a part-time worker only with respect to his days of unemployment in excess of a number to be prescribed with due regard to the proportion of full time which he regularly works.

(e) The provisions of section 9 of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937 shall be applicable to benefits under this Act to the same extent and in the same manner as therein provided with respect to annuities, death benefits, and pensions.

(f) No benefits shall be assignable or be subject to any tax or to garnishment, attachment, or other legal process under any circumstances whatsoever, nor shall the payment thereof be anticipated.

(g) If (i) benefits are paid to any employee with respect to any period, and there is later determined to be payable to such employee any remuneration with respect to such period, and (ii) the person or company from whom such remuneration is payable has, before payment thereof, notice of the payment of such benefits, the remuneration so payable shall not be reduced by reason of such benefits but the

remuneration so payable, to the extent of such benefits, shall be held to be a special fund in trust for the Board. The amount of such special fund shall be paid to the Board and in the collection thereof the Board shall have the same authority, and the same penalties shall apply, as are provided in section 8 of this Act with respect to contributions. The proceeds of such special fund shall be credited to the account. The amount of such benefits, to the extent that it is represented in such a special fund which has been collected by the Board, shall be disregarded for the purposes of subsections (a) and (c) of this section.

QUALIFYING CONDITIONS

SEC. 3. An employee shall be qualified to receive benefits in accordance with section 2 of this Act only if the Board finds that

(a) There was payable to him compensation of not less than $150 with respect to employment during his base year; and

(b) Within six months prior to his benefit year and after June 15, 1939, he has had a waiting period of at least fifteen consecutive days of unemployment, or two half-months during each of which he had at least eight days of unemployment. No such period shall be counted for the purposes of this subsection if unemployment benefits have been paid with respect to the whole or any part thereof under this Act, any other Act of Congress, or under any other unemploymentcompensation law.

DISQUALIFYING CONDITIONS

SEC. 4 (a) There shall not be considered as a day of unemployment, with respect to any employee

(i) any of the thirty days beginning with the day with respect to which the Board finds that he left work voluntarily without good cause;

(ii) any of the forty-five days beginning with the day with respect to which the Board finds that he was discharged or suspended for misconduct related to his work;

(iii) any of the thirty days beginning with the day with respect to which the Board finds that he failed, without good cause, to accept suitable work available on such day and offered to him;

(iv) any of the fifteen days beginning with the day with respect to which the Board finds that he was, with proper notice, called upon to report for suitable work available on such day and was able to work but was not available;

(v) subject to the provisions of subsection (b) of this section, any day with respect to which the Board finds that his unemployment was due to a stoppage of work because of a strike in the establishment, premises, or enterprise at which he was last employed, and the Board finds that such strike was commenced in violation of the provisions of the Railway Labor Act or in violation of the established rules and practices of a bona fide labor organization of which he was a member;

(vi) any of the seventy-five days beginning with the first day of any half-month with respect to which the Board finds that he knowingly made or aided in making or caused to be made any false or fraudulent statement or claim for the purpose of causing benefits to be paid;

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