In the past five years, 1,300 Wood County residents have been laid off from their jobs, according to U.S.
Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office.
While individual layoffs greatly impact families, mass layoffs often devastate entire communities, Brown,
D-Ohio, said Wednesday during a conference call with media.
To lessen the negative impact, Brown is co-sponsoring the Layoff Prevention Act, a bill that offers
employers facing lower demand for products with an alternative to laying off workers.
According to Brown, the bill would permit employers to reduce all employees’ hours by a percentage,
rather than laying off a portion of their workforce.
The workers would be compensated for lost wages by unemployment insurance.
Employers would benefit by not experiencing skill erosion by laying off workers.
Similar programs have already been set up in 23 states, according to Brown. The federal legislation would
allow governors to create programs in states where the legislature has failed to do so.
Overall, the program spreads out the pain among employees at businesses suffering from a lack of business
– and it lessens the effects on communities, the senator said.
"It means less devastation for communities," he said. And while it means income loss for
workers, that loss is not as drastic. "It’s better than a plummeting of the standard of
living."
Use of the "short-term compensation" program would be voluntary.
Scott Blue, a plant manager for Kenworth tractor-trailer manufacturer in southern Ohio, said the Layoff
Prevention Act would help companies on the verge of layoffs.
"The more flexible we can be, the more business we can retain," Blue said during the press
conference. The law would give companies a way to retain trained employees. "It allows us to be
more marketable in the marketplace. It’s a step in the right direction."
Zach Schiller, research director of Policy Matters Ohio, explained how the legislation would allow the
pain of the recession to be spread out.
Under the program, if a company decided it needed to layoff one-fifth of its workers, it would have the
option of reducing workers’ hours instead. But cutting hours by one-fifth, the employees could possibly
work four rather than five days a week.
If those workers normally got paid $750 a week, they would instead make $600 a week, Schiller said. Those
workers would qualify for unemployment insurance, which would kick in $75 a week. While that is a pay
cut, it is less devastating than layoffs, he added.
The program would also allow workers to retain their health insurance.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, if Ohio had a short-term compensation program similar to other
states, more than 23,000 Ohioans would have participated in it in 2009.
The layoff prevention law would benefit both employees and employers, Schiller said.