In all jurisdictions, benefits may be denied if the person has lost his previous employment for specified reasons ; generally miscon duct, a labour dispute or voluntary leaving, civil or military dis order, acts of God, or if he has failed to accept suitable new em ployment. Various laws have other specific barriers to rights of benefit, such as the fact that the claimant is a student who was working only during a vacation, was self-employed, was working in a specified short-year industry like pea-canning.
The Federal Government requires, as a condition for receiving Federal grants to cover administrative expenses, that the adminis trative procedures of the States include certain standard arrange ments. There must be a public employment service. This problem has been solved by the establishment of a nation-wide and fairly well-developed employment service. Its management was trans ferred in 1939 from the Department of Labor to the Social Secu rity Board, which puts the administration of unemployment com pensation and the Employment Service under a single Federal agency. Every claimant for benefit must file his application for benefits at the employment office, concurrently applying for work.
Certification by the employment service of such registration for work is a prerequisite to the receipt of benefits. A report from the Employment Service that the applicant has refused employment offered to him holds up his right to benefits until it can be deter mined whether the refusal was justifiable. As previously indicated, all of the laws define what constitutes "suitable employment." Each State is required by the Federal Government to set up and maintain an adequate State agency to administer the unemploy ment compensation act. Grants of administrative funds can be re fused by the national Government if the agency set up is not ade quate in the opinion of the Social Security Board. This State agency must be equipped to collect and keep record of contribu tions, receive and pass upon claims for benefits, pay benefits, ad judicate disputes between employers and employees over benefits or other matters coming under the acts, manage the State budg etary functions connected with unemployment compensation, and any other functions that may be necessary. The administrative agencies set up in the different States differ widely—in West Vir ginia a director appointed by the Governor, in New York and other States the Labor Commissioner, in Wisconsin and others an Industrial Commission, in Texas and other States an Unemploy ment Compensation Commission, in North Dakota and Idaho the Workmen's Compensation authorities.
Machinery and procedure to investigate and settle disputed claims is a vital part of unemployment compensation administra tion. The American procedure is substantially the same in all
the States and is derived directly from the British system. A deputy of the State administrative office passes upon the claim promptly or, if it involves questions he is unable to pass upon, refers it to an appeal tribunal. The appeal tribunals typically consist of an examiner appointed by the State administrative body, a representative of employers and a representative of em ployees. Appeals from decisions of the deputy also go to these appeal tribunals. In fact, such appeals are their principal as signment. Decisions of the appeal tribunals may be appealed for final determination to the State administrative agency. Judicial review of decisions is in most States confined solely to questions of law. Appeal to the courts must be made in the county of the aggrieved party's residence, must be to a court of record, and may be appealed to the higher courts in the same manner and under the same limitations as any other matter appealed from the lower to the higher courts.
The American laws were amended in various particulars in 1938 and 1939 but none of the amendments affected the fundamentals of the laws. Clarification of the language of the acts, simplifica tion of procedure, and the speeding up of benefit payments were the ends accomplished by most of the amendments. A complete record of all changes in both the State and Federal laws is available at all times in the office of the Social Security Board.
Previous to 1932, American experiments with unemployment compensation were limited either to single plants or portions of an industry and probably covered less than 150,000 persons. They were schemes either initiated by employers or created by joint agreement between trade unions and employers. Systems of trade union benefits against unemployment, in which the benefit funds are raised and administered by the unions themselves, have never been very extensive in the United States. In that respect Ameri can labour history differs sharply from European, though the fea tures of such American trade union plans as have existed have re sembled the European. (D. D. L.) Other Schemes.—Compulsory schemes exist in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States, Norway, Union of South Africa, Russia, Italy, Queensland, Eire, and Germany, while volun tary systems aided by the State are in operation in eight other States, viz., Denmark, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Spain, Belgium, and Switzerland. The revised Belgian and Swedish plans, while technically voluntary, are so comprehensive and make it so much to the advantage of the insurable to come under the law that they have almost the same effect as a compulsory system.