The most newsworthy bill would prohibit employers from asking their employees or applicants to allow access to their social media sites, such as facebook. While cautionary tales abound about employers using the internet to find out what employees post, many people shield some of their information by erecting privacy walls. A state employee was required to give up his facebook password as a condition to returning to work after a leave of absence, triggering the legislation. According to the Baltimore Sun, Maryland is the first state to enact protective legislation, but others are considering similar protections.

A second law seeks to protect employees who serve on juries.  Under SB 16 and HB 353, an employer may not schedule an employee for a shift beginning on or after 5 p.m. the day of jury service (or at least four hours of it), or before 3 a.m. the day after jury service.

Finally, a law eases some of the unemployment restrictions. An employee is entitled to unemployment benefits if she quits voluntarily with good cause. The employee has the burden of proof on the good cause, and there are not that many that qualify.  A new recognized example of good cause was added to the law, permitting a finding of good cause if continued employment could endanger the safety of the employee, or the employee’s spouse, minor child or parent, if any of whom is a victim of domestic violence.  Sometimes a domestic violence victim is safe only if he or she disappears from the reach of the perpetrator.  A significant aspect of this law prohibits an employer’s rating record from being charged for the benefits, which should minimize employers’ objections when benefits are sought on this basis.

SB 291/HB 769

The study does not delve into the personal costs of the lack of job prospects for so many months.  But the International Monetary Fund tackled the “human cost” of long-term recessions, concluding that some of the advanced economies with relatively high incomes were the most affected.  Oddly, the United States suffered a large increase in the number of unemployed people, while Germany and Japan did not.  The study traces the likely lingering effects, from worker discouragement to lifelong diminishing earnings.  These in turn lead to negative health outcomes, including stress-related illnesses and the health implications of losing health insurance.

An interesting component of instability focuses on social cohesion.  Data from around the world supports the conclusion that the “personal joblessness experience translates into negative opinions about the effectiveness of democracy and increases the desire for a rogue leader.”  On a more personal scale, the loss of a job affects one’s ability to interact with co-workers on the job; at any place that requires cash; and any time one’s personal sense of worth is so attached to being employed that old friends or haunts are avoided.  Further, the additional burden on younger workers delays their independence.

The upshot is that people who became unemployed in the summer are able to move on to the emergency benefit program once their 26 weeks elapse.

The social security payroll tax cut was also extended for two months.  According to the Washington Post, the tax cut saved the average household $900 last year, but worries about social security’s solvency and independence increased with the move to lenghtn the tax cut.

The jobs bill would extend both monetary and job services benefits. It also has a detailed plan to allow states to offer training and other support to those who wish to become self-employed.

An interesting part of the bill addresses a key barrier facing the unemployed: they are unemployed.  The EEOC has been concerned about the overt preference given by employers to people who already have jobs; some ads state that they will only consider currently employed applicants.  To counter that preference, the jobs bill incorporates a carrot and stick approach.   First, it offers incentives to employers who hire someone who has been unemployed for at least six months.  Employers can get up to $4,000 as a tax credit.  Tax credits are always popular, since they are a direct subtraction from the tax liability, not just a deduction from income.

The stick is called the “Fair Employment Opportunity Act of 2011,” which would prohibit discrimination against the unemployed.   The EEOC would have enforcement authority, much like with other forms of discrimination.  This provision would eliminate job announcements that require current employment, and also ban employers and agencies from refusing to consider or hire someone on the basis that they are unemployed at the time they seek new employment.  Failure to hire cases are difficult to prove, since the employer rarely states why someone does not get a job.  Once the motivation is known to be illegal, such a statement would be an endangered creature.  Still, with large employers or those with loose lips, the pattern of refusing to consider the unemployed may have to change.

HB 1228 tweaks the unemployment law to allow for the maximum chance of getting full federal funding of extended unemployment benefits.  To meet federal standards, the state law needed to alter the definition of an economic downturn triggering the extnsion.

SB 551 prohibits an employer from retaliating against an employee making an oral or written complaint, or testifying in an action relating to Maryland’s wage laws.  The law clarifies that taking adverse action in retaliation means not just firing the employee but demoting, or threatening to fire or demote the employee, or taking any other adverse action “that would dissuade a reasonable employee from making a complaint, bringing an action, or testifying in an action under” the law.  A violation of the law is a misdemeanor.

HB 211 changes the name of the Maryland Commission on Human Relations to the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, effective October 1.

This does not seem to be the same phenomenon we’ve seen before, that many people give up looking for jobs, so they are no longer counted in the potential workforce.  Maryland’s unemployment rate is now a respectable 6.9%.  The article said instead that more people were commuting out of state, or had started their own businesses.

The new regulations, at COMAR 09.32.06.03(P) and COMAR 09.32.11.02(G), state that a lawyer may charge twice the weekly benefit as a fee without permission, and may ask for permission to charge more.  This change should go a long way towards allowing unemployed Marylanders the opportunity to find representation.  Challenges to unemployment benefits have risen with the tax rates.  A finding of gross misconduct disqualifies the unemployed worker from benefits until he or she finds a new job and earns 26 times the weekly benefit.  In other words, the workers’ next period of unemployment may be covered by benefits, but not the one in which a firing was deemed gross misconduct.  It’s not easy to draw the line at what is gross misconduct, what is simple misconduct, and what is not misconduct at all.  But since the line is usually drawn by a hearing examiner based on the testimony before him or her, the decision is ordinarily not overturned on appeal.  The main action is at the hearing examiner level.

Employers’ lawyers may charge any amount for representing an employer at the hearing.  By allowing lawyers for the unemployed worker to charge up to two weeks of benefits, the lawyer can afford to take the case, and hopefully make a difference in the outcome.

While unfortunate, the worst news comes out of the “intransigence,” as the authors aptly put it, of unemployment. Sixty-four percent of their respondents had been out of work for at least a year, while more than a third had been searching for work for at least two years. More than half of the long-term unemployed have no health insurance.

Understandably, the respondents tend to believe that our economy has changed permanently, and for the worst. Many are now considering themselves the “involuntarily retired,” while the social security structure aims to keep people working longer.]

News reports of major companies sitting on plentiful cash and a thriving stock market create a real disconnect. With an economy based so thoroughly on consumer confidence and spending, putting more people to work here appears possible, and without a downside.

Unfortunately, not many people have benefited. According to the U.S. Treasury, only 238 employees were hired in Maryland under this plan, from February through July. The program has room for Maryland companies to hire 4,000 workers through the end of the year; the local economy is unlikely to use all of these credits. That failure seems more associate with lack of awareness of the available tax breaks, however, since hiring is up since January. Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation has a link to information on the program on its home page.

Of course, the federal government may choose to extend the program; as businesses begin tax preparation the credit may become more well-known.