During the current Coronavirus pandemic, many businesses are struggling and some, unfortunately, are forced to lay off their employees.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services offers a voluntary Layoff Aversion Program called SharedWork. This program allows employers to retain their staff during times of reduced business activity, while helping to subsidize the employee’s pay.
SharedWork allows a participating company to uniformly reduce the amount of hours employees work each week and ODJFS then provides the eligible employees unemployment benefits proportionate to their reduced hours.
To become a participating employer, companies must meet several criteria including a certain level of full-time employees, be current on all state and unemployment taxes and agree to other program requirements.
Additionally, employers must reduce hours equally by the same percentage reduction, which must be between 10 and 50 percent of normal weekly hours worked.
After ODJFS notifies an employer it has approved the submitted SharedWork Ohio plan, the affected employees may apply for SharedWork Ohio benefits.
To apply for a SharedWork Ohio plan, go to unemployment.ohio.gov and log in to your OJI Employer benefits account. From the Main Menu, under SharedWork Ohio (SWO), select View/Manage SWO Plans.