Furloughed Employees Need the NYS Record of Employment Form From Employers / Payroll Companies To Claim Unemployment Benefits

Posted on Posted in COVID-19, economy, employee, employer, HR, New York state, NYS, Pandemic Unemployment Insurance, PUA, Uncategorized, unemployment insurance Tagged with , , , , , , ,

A number of my employer clients received this email last week from the NYS Department of Labor and the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance regarding the NYS employer requirement to provide the NYS Record of Employment Form to furloughed and otherwise terminated-from-payroll employees:

Required Information to Employees

Impacted by COVID-19
Dear Employer:

During this COVID-19 Pandemic, many workplaces have been directly impacted by closures or workforce reduction. As an employer you are required by law (12 NYCRR § 472.8) to provide certain information to your employees to help them promptly complete the unemployment insurance benefits application.

Immediate action required: In order to ensure that you are complying with your legal obligations, and to facilitate the timely processing of unemployment insurance benefits applications, we are directing all New York State employers to provide the following information to each of your employees whose work schedule and/or employment status has been impacted as a result of COVID-19 related issues.

Employer Information

NYS Employer Registration No:

(Note: the NYS Employer Registration Number is the internal number that NYS assigns to an employer for their Unemployment Insurance account – parenthetical mine.)

Federal Employer Identification No:

Employer Name:

Employer Address:

Please make sure that all relevant employees, including those who have already been impacted by COVID-19, are promptly provided this information. You may use Form IA 12.3 to provide this information to your employees.

Thank you for your assistance during this unprecedented time.

Sincerely,

New York State Department of Labor

 

The Record of Employment form is referenced on this required NYS Employer labor posting – NYS DOL provides this certificate as part of the Employer Unemployment Insurance enrollment process:

Whenever one of your employees is terminated from your payroll, your payroll vendor (on behalf of you as the employer) is required to provide this completed form to the furloughed / terminated employee as key information they need to apply for NYS Unemployment Insurance (and now Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA).

Aside from the upsetting computer and phone issues causing weeks of delays in getting unemployment and PUA benefits to claimants, almost all NYS Department of Labor employees are working remotely due to the COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders, as well as employees from other NYS agencies who have been redeployed to help catch up on the enormous backlog of incomplete claims due to these issues. In all likelihood, these remote NYS employees don’t always have access to the NYS DOL system to look up the Employer Identification Number (EIN) as well as the Employer Unemployment Insurance Number – which is why the NYS Unemployment Insurance Division is now asking claimants to be ready to provide this information.

One of the best ways you can help furloughed employees get their NYS UI and PUA benefits is to ensure they’ve received the above form completed with the required employer numbers. If furloughed employees haven’t received this form, you as the employer (or your payroll provider) can resend this form to impacted employees.

Be safe, and well.