Effective January 1, 1990, all benefits paid to an employee for his or her days of unemployment or days of sickness will be charged to the base year employer of such employee, except as hereinafter provided in this part. The Board will make the charge by adding the gross amount of the benefits payable to an employee on the basis of a claim for benefits to that employee's base year employer's cumulative benefit balance. The benefit charge does not depend on whether the employee receiving the benefit payment is a current employee of the base year employer.

If benefits are payable to an employee for days of unemployment resulting from a strike or work stoppage growing out of a labor dispute, the Board will charge the benefit payment to the system unallocated charge balance, not to the cumulative benefit balance of the employee's base year employer. For the purposes of this section, the phrase “strike or work stoppage growing out of a labor dispute” does not include an employee's protected refusal to work under section 212(b) of the Federal Railroad Safety Act of 1970 (45 U.S.C. 441(b)).

(a) General rules for benefit charging. All benefits paid to an employee who had more than one base year employer shall be charged to the cumulative benefit balances of such employers, as follows:

(1) If the employer at the time of the claim is the same as the last employer in the base year, benefits will be charged in reverse chronological order, but the amount charged to each base year employer shall not exceed the amount of compensation paid by such employer to the employee in the base year;

(2) In all other cases, benefits will be charged in the same ratio as the compensation paid to such employee by the employer bears to the total of such compensation paid to such employee by all such employers in the base year; benefit charging in accordance with this method shall apply whether the base year employment was with successive employers or with concurrent employers.

(b) Excess benefit payments. If, in applying the rule in paragraph (a)(1) of this section, there remain benefit payments, in whole or in part, that cannot be charged to any base year employer, the amount of benefits paid in excess of those chargeable under paragraph (a)(1) shall be charged to the system unallocated charge balance.

(c) Board records as basis for charging multiple base year employers. Where an employee has more than one base year employer, the Board will use records compiled on the basis of employer reports filed under § 345.110 of this part for the purpose of determining whether the employer at the time of the claim for benefits is the last employer in the base year and for other purposes related to benefit charging under this subpart. If, in a particular case, such records do not contain all the data necessary to determine the charge, the Board will request the necessary data from the base year employers who may be liable for the charge.

(a) Recovery of benefits charged to base year employer. Where the Board recovers a benefit payment that it had previously charged, in whole or in part, to one or more base year employers, the Board will subtract the amount of the recovery from the cumulative benefit balances of the employers of the employee to whom such amount was paid as a benefit in proportion to the amount by which each such employer's cumulative benefit balance was increased as a result of the payment of the benefit.

(b) Recovery of other benefit payments. Where the Board recovers a benefit payment that was not charged, in whole or in part, to any base year employer, or was made before January 1, 1990, the Board will treat the amount of the recovery as a subtraction from the system unallocated charge balance.

(c) Payment of interest or other debt collection-related charges. The Board will not adjust a base year employer's cumulative benefit balance to reflect payment by a debtor of interest or other charges assessed by the Board under § 200.7 of this chapter with respect to the collection of a debt arising from a benefit payment charged to such employer and later found to be recoverable by the Board.

(d) Limitations. The Board will adjust a base year employer's cumulative benefit balance only when the Board actually recovers, by cash payment or setoff, a debt that represents a benefit payment that was charged, in whole or in part, to such employer. No adjustment shall be made—

(1) If the Board waives recovery of a debt in accordance with part 340 of this chapter, or

(2) If the Board finds that a debt is uncollectible, or

(3) To the extent of the amount not recovered by the Board by reason of a compromise settlement of a debt.

(a) Prepayment notification. When the Board receives an employee's claim for unemployment or sickness benefits, the Board will give the employee's base year employer notice of the claim and an opportunity to provide information to the Board with respect to the employee's eligibility for benefits for the period of time covered by the claim.

(b) Notice of claim determination. After the base year employer has had an opportunity to provide information in accordance with the prepayment notification process described in paragraph (a) of this section, the office of the Board that is adjudicating the employee's claim for benefits will determine whether to pay or to deny benefits on the claim. Such office will send notice to the base year employer showing what determination was made on the claim. If benefits are found to be payable, the amount of the payment will be charged to the cumulative benefit balance of the base year employer in accordance with the provisions of this subpart. If the base year employer disagrees with the payment of benefits, it may request reconsideration in accordance with part 320 of this chapter.

(c) Quarterly notice of benefit charges. As soon as practical following the end of each calendar quarter, the Board will send to each employer a report of its cumulative benefit balance computed as of the end of such quarter. The computation of such balance will reflect the following:

(1) The total amount of unemployment and sickness benefit payments made after December 31, 1989, that have been charged to the employer as the base year employer of the employees who received the benefits; minus

(2) The total amount realized in recovery of such benefits; plus

(3) The total amount of the unallocated charges assigned to such base year employer after December 31, 1989; minus

(4) The total amount realized in recovery of such unallocated charges.

Whenever the Board determines, pursuant to § 345.207 of this part, that an employer is defunct, the Board will add the amount of such employer's benefit charges, as shown in its cumulative benefit balance, to the system unallocated charge balance.