Economic Dislocation and Worker Adjustment Assistance Act

(Measure indefinitely postponed in Senate)

Economic Dislocation and Worker Adjustment Assistance Act - Amends the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) to replace title III (Employment and Training Assistance for Dislocated Workers) with new provisions to aid dislocated persons, including former full-time homemakers who no longer receive spousal support.

Directs the Secretary of Labor (Secretary) to: (1) distribute funds to States under this title; (2) provide funds to exemplary and demonstration programs on plant closings and worker dislocation; (3) allocate discretionary funds; (4) monitor performance and expenditures and annually certify compliance with standards; (5) conduct research and serve as a national clearinghouse for gathering and disseminating information on plant closings and worker dislocation; (6) provide technical assistance and staff training services to States, communities, businesses, and unions; and (7) create a dislocated workers unit to coordinate the Secretary's functions under this title and to carry out specified consultations to address the needs of displaced workers who are veterans.

Requires State Governors, in order to receive an allocation of funds under this title, to submit to the Secretary a biennial State plan describing the programs and activities that will be assisted with such funds. Sets forth mandatory inclusions for State plans, including requiring: (1) the designation or creation of an identifiable State dislocated worker unit or office with the capability to respond rapidly, on site, to mass layoffs and plant closings; and (2) the establishment of a State job training coordinating council to advise the Governor and the State unit on the administration of programs under this title. Sets forth provisions for review, approval, and modification of plans, and for complaints, investigations, and penalties.

Allows funds allocated to States to be used to: (1) provide rapid response assistance in cases of plant closings and mass layoffs; (2) deliver, coordinate, and integrate basic readjustment services, including counseling, occupational information, job placement assistance, child care, and other supportive services; (3) provide retraining services, including classroom and on-the-job training, remedial education, and English for non-English speakers; (4) provide income support to certain displaced women who are participants in training or education programs under this title and are ineligible for unemployment compensation; and (5) establish programs providing linkage with the unemployment compensation system, including methods for the timely referral of persons to readjustment services and criteria for early identification of those having the greatest difficulty in finding employment.

Requires, subject to waiver by the Governor under certain circumstances, that a minimum of 30 percent of funds spent under this title by a substate grantee be used for retraining services.

Directs each State Governor to designate substate areas composed of one or more service delivery areas (based on population units of 500,000 or more). Provides for the designation of a substate grantee, selected in accordance with an agreement among the Governor, the local elected official, and the private industry council, to be responsible for providing basic readjustment and retraining services and income support. Lists entities eligible for designation as substate grantees, including: (1) private industry councils; (2) service delivery area grant recipients or administrative entities; (3) private nonprofit organizations; (4) local governmental units or offices of State agencies; and (5) public agencies such as community colleges and area vocational schools.

Requires that each substate grantee submit for the Governor's approval a plan describing how the services to be funded will be delivered. Sets forth details that must be described in such a plan, including information relating to program and recipient eligibility, coordination of relevant services, and performance goals. Authorizes the Governor to direct expenditures pursuant to a substate plan if the grantee fails to do so.

Requires a separate readjustment training plan to be included as part of a substate plan when relevant. Details required contents of such a plan, including: (1) procedures to assess the skills and needs of eligible dislocated workers; (2) a description of services and activities to be provided; and (3) a list of goals.

Sets forth criteria to govern the selection by substate grantees of service providers.

Directs the Secretary, for a given fiscal year, to: (1) allocate 75 percent of appropriated funds for distribution to the States; and (2) reserve 25 percent for demonstration, exemplary, and discretionary programs for eligible dislocated workers. Sets forth: (1) formulas for the allocation of funds to the States by the Secretary; and (2) criteria to be used by the Governor for distribution of funds within a State.

Directs the Secretary to promulgate standards for the conduct and evaluation of programs under this title.

Directs the Secretary, in the event that a State fails to qualify for an allocation, to use the amount of the allocation to provide in that State, directly or through contract, the program and services authorized by this title.

Authorizes up to 20 percent of the funds allocated to a State for any fiscal year to remain available for obligation and expenditure during the succeeding fiscal year. Provides for reimbursement of certain State funds from an allocation for a succeeding fiscal year. Limits administrative costs to 15 percent of a substate grantee's expenditures.

Directs the Secretary to ensure that each State unit has access to information collected and maintained under specified provisions of the JTPA to identify job skills that would improve the employment opportunities of eligible displaced workers.

Provides for the reallotment, subject to certain limitations, of recaptured unobligated funds among States that: (1) have the highest unemployment rates; and (2) have expended at least 90 percent of their program year allotment.

Assigns to the State job training coordinating council specific meeting, review, and report requirements for purposes of this title.

Directs the Secretary to provide for continuing evaluation of the program authorized by this title. Directs the Secretary to prepare and submit to the Congress as part of the annual report of the Department of Labor a report on certain activities under this title.

Prohibits an employer from ordering a plant closing or mass layoff until the end of a specified period after the employer serves written notice of a proposal to issue such an order to: (1) the representative of the affected employees, or if there is no representative, to each affected employee; and (2) the State dislocated worker unit and the affected local government. Specifies the governing time period to be: (1) 90 days in the case of a proposed plant closing or mass layoff involving between 50 and 100 affected employees; (2) 120 days in instances affecting between 101 and 499 employees; and (3) 180 days when 500 or more employees are affected. Provides for reduction of such notification period if the closing or layoff is caused by business circumstances not reasonably foreseeable.

Requires an employer, upon proper and timely request, to provide: (1) financial statements and audit reports for the most recent three years for the place of employment due to be closed; (2) studies or evaluations assessing the feasibility of maintaining operations that the employer considered in proposing the shutdown or layoff; and (3) a statement of the employer's present plans concerning both the relocation of the work and the disposition of the capital assets of the affected facility. Provides for protective orders to prevent disclosure of competitive information.

Makes an employer who orders a plant closing or mass layoff in violation of the notice or disclosure requirements of this title liable to employees for back pay and benefits and subject to civil penalties. Creates a cause of action in the appropriate U.S. district court to enforce such liability. Authorizes the court in such cases to require the defendant to pay reasonable attorney's fees, along with the costs of the action.

Makes representatives of affected employees or local governments who violate protective orders relating to competitive information liable to the employer for consequent financial loss. Creates a cause of action in any U.S. court of competent jurisdiction for an employer to recover such liability. Authorizes the court in such cases to require the defendant to pay reasonable attorney's fees, along with the costs of the action. States that such remedies shall be the exclusive remedies for any violation of the notification requirements.

Exempts from the notification requirements a plant closing or layoff if: (1) it results from the sale of the employer's business and the purchaser agrees to hire substantially all of the affected employees; (2) it results from a relocation of the business within a reasonable commuting distance and the employer offers to transfer substantially all of the affected employees; or (3) the affected employees were hired with the understanding that their employment was limited to the duration of the project or facility and the closing or layoff results because of the completion of the project.

States that the rights and remedies provided to employees provided by such notification provisions are in addition to any other contractual, statutory, or other legal rights and remedies of the employees.

Declares that it is the sense of Congress that any employer not subject to the notice requirements should, to the extent possible, notify its employees about a proposal to close a plant or permanently reduce its workforce.

Directs the Secretary, from certain reserved amounts, to carry out demonstration, exemplary, and discretionary programs under this title. Reserves certain portions of such funds for specified programs under this title and for the Secretary's discretionary and exemplary programs. Sets a minimum and maximum amount to be available for dislocated farmer demonstration grants.

Authorizes the Secretary to implement dislocated worker loan demonstration projects in order to determine their feasibility and cost effectiveness with respect to: (1) augmenting training and assistance provided under this Act with other longer-term job preparatory training; (2) serving as an alternative to grants for providing retraining and relocation assistance; and (3) serving as a means of upgrading the skills of workers dislocated within firms.

Requires the Secretary to establish at least five such projects, each of which is to make a good faith effort to serve an annual aggregate of 2,000 dislocated workers.

Limits to $5,000 the aggregate amount of all direct loans made from such funds to each dislocated worker. Authorizes use of such loans for: (1) vocational and on-the-job training; (2) basic and remedial education; (3) relocation expenses; and (4) child care services.

Provides for evaluation of the direct loan approach. Directs the Secretary to report to the Congress on such evaluations by October 1, 1990.

Directs the Secretary to establish, through agreements with States, at least five self-employment opportunity demonstration projects to determine the feasibility and cost effectiveness of offering to workers just beginning to receive unemployment compensation the option of receiving assistance to set up their own business. Sets forth requirements with respect to: (1) eligibility; (2) rates of benefits; and (3) duration of eligibility.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) provide for evaluation of the self-employment allowance system; and (2) report to the Congress on such evaluations by October 1, 1990.

Directs the Secretary to conduct, through contracts with private industry councils, at least five public works employment demonstration projects to determine the feasibility and effectiveness with respect to: (1) developing skills that are marketable in the local private section; (2) assisting eligible participants to find jobs in the private sector; and (3) the impact on unsubsidized earnings and employment vis-a-vis job training and employment services.

Prohibits the selection of a local job project when two business representatives or two labor representatives who are private industry council members file an objection to the particular project. Limits to 32 hours per week the time an eligible participant may be employed on such a job project.

Directs the Secretary to establish guidelines for local job project selection, including requirements for education, training, and private sector job search assistance. Requires the Secretary to: (1) provide for evaluation of the public works employment demonstration project; and (2) report to the Congress on such evaluations by October 1, 1990.

Directs the Secretary to allocate funds to the States to implement demonstration projects for dislocated farmers, farm employees, and ranchers to determine whether a substantial number of such persons not currently participating in programs for dislocated workers could benefit from specially targeted assistance. Bases a State's eligibility for assistance under this program on: (1) the extent of the decline of farm equity within the State; (2) the increase in the average debt-to-asset ratio of all farms; and (3) the presence in the State of areas having significant farmer dislocation or potential dislocation.

Sets forth formulas for determining the allocation of funds to eligible States. Includes a per State maximum and provisions for recapture of unused funds.

Designates as eligible recipients of services under the State application farmers, farm employees, and ranchers who: (1) can demonstrate that the operations providing their primary occupation have terminated or are likely to do so because of foreclosure, bankruptcy, ongoing nonprofitability, and similar causes; or (2) are likely to leave their primary occupation because of an unfavorable debt-to-asset ratio.

Authorizes specially tailored basic readjustment, retraining, and income support services.

Requires the Secretary to: (1) provide for evaluation of the success of the special program for dislocated agricultural workers; and (2) report to the Congress on such evaluations by October 1, 1990.

Directs the Secretary to carry out, through grants to nonprofit community development corporations, demonstration programs to illustrate the effectiveness of such corporations in creating employment opportunities for eligible dislocated workers, especially heads of low-income families.

Requires that grant funds be used to furnish technical and financial assistance for business concerns and other enterprises located in distressed communities to promote employment opportunities for dislocated workers.

Sets forth information to be required in the application for a grant under the program. Directs the Secretary to: (1) give priority to applications with the highest percentage of dislocated workers who are heads of low-income families; (2) provide for evaluation of the success of this job creation program; and (3) report to the Congress on such evaluations by October 1, 1990.

Authorizes the Secretary to use specified reserved funds to provide appropriate assistance and support for industry-wide and multi-State projects, in certain cases of mass layoffs, and for other specified uses. Requires the Secretary to establish criteria to govern the application for and disbursement of these discretionary funds. Directs the Secretary to disseminate information on the effectiveness of programs assisted under this discretionary program.

Amends the JTPA to: (1) authorize specific FY 1988 appropriations for title III purposes; and (2) revise the selection process for and composition of State job training coordinating councils.