The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 21 : Labor

Chapter 017 : Unemployment Compensation

Subchapter 001 : GENERAL BENEFITS

• § 1318. Reciprocal benefit arrangements

  (a) The Commissioner is authorized to enter into arrangements with the appropriate agencies of other states or the federal government under which potential rights to benefits accumulated under the unemployment compensation laws of other states or under federal law, or both, may constitute the basis for the payment of benefits through a single appropriate agency under terms that the Commissioner finds will be fair and reasonable to all affected interests and will not result in any substantial loss to the Fund. The Commissioner is authorized to reimburse a state or federal agency for benefits paid by that agency upon the basis of wages received in employment subject to this chapter or to receive from a state or federal agency amounts paid from the Fund upon the basis of wages received in employment subject to the laws of the state or to federal law.

  (b) The Commissioner shall participate in any arrangements for the payment of compensation on the basis of combining an individual’s wages and employment covered under this chapter with the individual’s wages and employment covered under the unemployment compensation laws of other states that are approved by the U.S. Secretary of Labor in consultation with the state unemployment compensation agencies as reasonably calculated to ensure the prompt and full payment of compensation in such a situation and that include provisions for:

  (1) applying the base period of a single state law to a claim involving the combining of an individual’s wages and employment covered under two or more state unemployment compensation laws; and

  (2) avoiding the duplicate use of wages and employment by reason of the combination pursuant to subdivision (1) of this subsection (b).

  (c)(1) Reimbursements paid from the Fund pursuant to this section shall be deemed to be benefits for the purposes of this chapter.

  (2) No charge on account of reimbursements paid pursuant to subdivision (1) of this subsection (c) shall be made to an employer’s experience rating record under subsection 1325(a) of this subchapter.

  (3) Benefits paid from the Fund to an individual, under arrangements entered into pursuant to this section, shall not be charged to an employer’s experience rating record under subsection 1325(a) of this subchapter when the benefits would not have been payable to the individual but for this section because the individual lacked wages in employment necessary to qualify for benefits under section 1338 of this subchapter. (Amended 1959, No. 329 (Adj. Sess.), § 22, eff. March 1, 1961; 1961, No. 210, § 15, eff. July 11, 1961; 1969, No. 189 (Adj. Sess.), § 1, eff. April 9, 1970; 1971, No. 77, § 2, eff. Dec. 31, 1971; 2023, No. 85 (Adj. Sess.), § 178, eff. July 1, 2024.)