Unemployment Insurance

Maryland's second-highest court has ruled that Giant Food Inc. truck drivers and other workers who participated in a one-month strike against the company two years ago can collect unemployment insurance.The Court of Special Appeals ruled that an employer's operations as a whole must be considered in deciding whether a "stoppage of work" has occurred.Giant estimated that the strike, which began in December 1996, cost it about $3.9 million to replace goods that it ordinarily manufactured. Sales dropped almost 15 percent during the strike.

Public opinion analyses repeatedly show that Americans, to borrow an oft-repeated phrase, are "philosophically conservative" but "operationally liberal. " That is, Americans express a strong belief in hard work and making their way by pluck or even luck, rather than privilege or government assistance. But American majorities also support various social programs and the taxes that pay for them, including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance - not to mention government investments in roads, bridges, communications systems and other public works.

A Baltimore woman pleaded guilty Tuesday in connection with a scheme to steal more than $400,000 in Maryland unemployment benefits, the Maryland U.S. attorney's office said. Shekia Denise Edwards, 25, was one of three charged in the incident. Co-conspirators Kevin Bernard Smith and Sheila Denis Willis, also of Baltimore, had earlier pleaded guilty. According to their plea agreements, the women filed false unemployment insurance claims using Social Security numbers and other information belonging to Marylanders unconnected with the scheme.

In a move billed alternately as a necessary money-saver and as a wasteful hassle-maker, the state government next week will make it more difficult for people who quit their jobs or are fired to collect unemployment benefits.State officials say the new rules will save the troubled state unemployment insurance fund about $11 million a year -- a claim disputed by jobless Marylanders and employers.But there is little doubt that the change will affect thousands of Marylanders who might otherwise have been eligible for unemployment payments.

ANNAPOLIS -- A bill to restructure Maryland's unemployment insurance tax system and charge an immediate $61 million in additional taxes passed the Senate yesterday nearly unchanged from the version that passed the House two weeks ago.The 38-7 vote in favor of the legislation, written with the help of the Schaefer administration, virtually assures that the bill will become law this year.The higher taxes are needed, proponents of the measure argued, because the recession has depleted the state's unemployment insurance trust fund.

When labor and employers find common ground in the struggle over benefits and taxes, it should be cause for rejoicing. But when both sides agree on raiding the piggy-bank of the unemployment insurance trust fund, it's time for alarm.So when the House of Delegates approved cutting in half the payroll surtax, while raising maximum weekly benefits by 19 percent, it was a politically popular but not necessarily a prudent decision. If enacted into law, it would be effective for a year while legislators study changes to the overall unemployment insurance system between sessions.

A state Senate committee yesterday moved cautiously on legislation that would decrease the unemployment insurance surtax on businesses and increase benefits to the jobless.By a 10-1 vote, the Senate Finance Committee approved a bill to decrease the tax from 1.7 percent of wages to 1.2 percent and raise the weekly benefits paid to the unemployed from $223 to $250.The House of Delegates last week approved a more liberal approach to the program, decreasing the tax to 0.9 percent and raising the benefit to $265.

TUESDAY, 1 p.m.Senate Judicial Proceedings, Senate Room 300.SB 51 Immunity From Civil Liability -- SLAPP Suits; SB 63 Maryland Private Land Rights Protection Act.WEDNESDAY, 11 a.m.House Economic Matters, Room 150, Lowe HOBBriefing: Maryland State Retirement and Pension Systems -- Overview of Current Issues and Investments.WEDNESDAY, 1 p.m.Senate Finance, Senate Presidential WingSB 42 Insurance -- Liability of Insurer for Punitive Damages; SB 44 Insurance -- Antitrust Exemption and Rate Making; SB 148 Insurance -- Examination of Insurance Holding Corporations; SB 149 Insurance -- Premium Finance Companies -- Penalties; SB 165 Insurance -- Domestic Insurer of Insurance Holding Corporation -- Filing Requirements; SB 166 Insurance -- Underwriting -- Prohibition; SB 167 Insurance -- Liability Insurance Data Reporting; SB 168 Insurance -- Premium Finance Companies -- Examinations.

Several dozen unemployed Marylanders and their supporters -- some with clothespins on their noses -- marched into the state's Office of Unemployment Insurance today and told the agency's director "the system stinks."Organized by the Baltimore Unemployed Council, the protest was mounted to demand an end to long delays in benefit approvals, alleged dehumanizing treatment and red tape that leaves applicants without cash for weeks or months."People are being terrorized," said Robert Simpson, an unemployed worker and council co-chairman.