California’s Employment Development Department

California’s Employment Development Department is set forth in Division 1, Part 1, Chapter 2, Article 1 of the Unemployment Insurance Code. Section 301 provides that there is in the Labor and Workforce Development Agency the Employment Development Department, which is vested with the duties, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction that were previously exercised by the State Department of Benefit Payments or the California Health and Human Services Agency with respect to job creation activities.

The EDD is required to be administered by an executive officer known as the Director of Employment Development who is vested with the duties, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction previously exercised by the Director of Benefit Payments.

Section 301.6 requires the EDD to have the possession and control of all records, papers, offices, equipment, supplies, moneys, appropriations, land, and other property real or personal held for the benefit or use of the State Department of Benefit Payments in the performance of the duties, powers, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction that are vested in the Employment Development Department.

Section 301.7 provides that all officers and employees of the State Department of Benefit Payments who are serving in the state civil service, other than as temporary employees, and engaged in the performance of a function vested in the EDD and are transferred to the EDD.

Section 302 requires the Director of Employment Development be appointed by the Governor, subject to the approval of the Senate, and serve as director at the pleasure of the Governor. The salary of the director is fixed in accordance with law.

Section 303 requires there to be five deputy directors in the EDD who are appointed by the Governor subject to the approval of the Senate and they hold office at the pleasure of the Governor. The salary of the deputy directors is fixed in accordance with law.

Section 305 provides that regulations for the administration of functions of the EDD are to be adopted, amended, or repealed by the Director of Employment Development pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act.

Section 305.5 requires all regulations adopted by the Director of Human Resources Department remain in effect and are be fully enforceable unless and until readopted, amended or repealed by the Director of Employment Development.

Section 305.6 requires all regulations adopted by the Director of Benefit Payments remain in effect and are fully enforceable unless and until readopted, amended or repealed by the Director of Employment Development.

Section 306 allows the Director of Employment Development to adopt, amend, or repeal regulations that are reasonably necessary to enforce the Director’s functions under this code.

Section 307 requires the department to provide, upon the request of any person or entity, any or all of the department’s rules, regulations, guidelines, bulletins, manuals, standards of general application, or the departmental responsibilities under any state or federal law, along with any subscription service necessary to assure prompt receipt of additional amendments to any of the above materials.

Section 310 authorizes the Director of Employment Development or the Department of Employment Development to prescribe the extent, if any, to which any rule, regulation or interpretation issued or promulgated in accordance with the provisions of this code are applied without retroactive effect.

Section 311 requires the Director of Employment Development to appoint assistants except personnel of the appeals division as the Director finds necessary for the administration of this division, subject to the provisions of the Government Code, and may delegate to any of the officers or employees of the department such powers and duties as he considers necessary for the proper administration of this division.

Section 315 states the appeals division within the department includes the appeals board and its clerical staff and assistants and the administrative law judges and their supervisors and clerical staff and assistants.

Section 316 defines the following terms: “additional languages,” “limited English proficient,” “linguistic variant,” “multilingual access portal,” “primary languages,” and “vital information.”

In addition, there must be within an appropriate division of the department, a bureau, section, or unit relating to education and public instruction for the purpose of informing employers and workers of their rights and responsibilities under this code, and of instructing the public generally concerning its basic purposes, provisions, and operations.

Each application for unemployment insurance must contain a section asking the individual to identify their preferred written and spoken or signed languages to be kept in the individual’s claims record. Also, the department must provide oral and signed language unemployment insurance services in real time by qualified interpreters or qualified bilingual staff.

The department also has to translate the UI Online interface in the primary languages, and the department has to make the translated UI Online interface available upon completion of the translation of each primary language.

Section 317 requires the EDD Director to maintain a field investigating staff, whose function embraces investigation throughout the state of violations of this code, to the end that its provisions are more adequately and strictly enforced.

Section 318 requires the EDD Director to comply with all applicable provisions of the Government Code relating to contracts, budgets and other fiscal matters, in the same manner and to the same extent as other state agencies, insofar as such provisions are not inconsistent with the provisions of the Social Security Act and the rules and regulations of the Secretary of Labor.

Section 320 requires the EDD Director to make reports as the Secretary of Labor may from time to time require, and must comply with the provisions as the secretary may from time to time find necessary to assure the correctness and verification of such reports.

Section 320.3 requires the director to periodically review policies and practices used to determine eligibility for and the amount of benefits in the unemployment insurance program to identify those policies and practices that comply with three specified requirements. The director has to report annually to the Legislature on the results of the review.

Section 320.4 requires the department to engage in a dozen required duties including reporting on its website regarding specified information, performing a risk assessment, developing a workload plan, revise its public dashboards, implementing policies for tracking call resolutions, identifying and responding to identity theft victims, and other tasks.

Section 320.5 allows the director to prescribe the information required to be reported to the department by employing units under this division and employers subject to withholding tax in order to make reports required by the Secretary of Labor, to provide information necessary to administer this code, to estimate unemployment rates or to make other estimates required for the purpose of dispensing or withholding money payments under federal law.

Section 321 requires the EDD Director to make available, upon request, to any agency of the United States government charged with the administration of public works or assistance through public employment, the following information relating to recipients of unemployment compensation specified personal information of recipients.

Section 321.5 requires the EDD Director to verify, with the information provided by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, that the claimant is not an inmate currently incarcerated in the state prisons.

Section 322 allows the department to exchange information with federal, state, or local governmental departments and agencies that are concerned with the administration of unemployment or disability insurance, or the collection of taxes that may be used to finance the administration of unemployment or disability insurance, or the relief of unemployed or destitute individuals, or legislation concerning, regulating, or in any manner affecting the obligations arising out of an employer-employee relation, and with other federal, state, or local departments or agencies of government as the department deems necessary or desirable for the proper administration of this division in accordance with authorized regulations.

Section 323 allows the EDD Director to apply for an advance to the Unemployment Fund and accept the responsibility for the repayment of such advance in accordance with the conditions specified in federal law to secure to this state and its citizens the advantages available under the provisions of that title.

Section 324 requires expenses for the administration of this division to be paid out of the Unemployment Administration Fund. Section 325 allows the department to study and make recommendations regarding specifies actions.

Section 325.5 requires the department, in consultation and coordination with veterans’ organizations and veteran service providers, to research veterans’ needs, develop a statewide plan, and seek federal funding.

Section 325.6 states legislative intent that state supported Veterans Employment Training services meet the same performance standards as those required by the federal Workforce Investment Act for services provided to veterans. EDD is required to submit an annual report to the Legislature on four main performance measures.

Section 326 requires the department to investigate and report upon the degree of unemployment hazard in various industries and occupations and their cost to the Unemployment Fund. And, the report must recommend to employers in industries or occupations showing an excessive cost to that fund, means for stabilizing employment.

Section 327 authorizes the department to enter into negotiations with the United States Bureau of the Census to expand the current population survey for a sample of up to 35,000 households in California. The department must report its findings and the result of the negotiations to the Legislature.

Section 329 requires the director, or designee, to serve as Chairperson of the Joint Enforcement Strike Force on the Underground Economy, which has a dozen specified duties, such as facilitating and encouraging the development and sharing of information by the participating agencies necessary to combat the underground economy including the enforcement activities regarding labor, tax, insurance, and licensing law violators operating in the underground economy.

Section 331 requires the director to post on its internet website a hyperlink to information about the Federal Unemployment Tax Act tax credit. On the web page describing this credit, the director shall indicate whether the Unemployment Fund owes money to the federal government, and if so, the implications of that outstanding debt on employers’ unemployment insurance costs.

Section 333 requires the department to place a high priority on the automation of the Benefit Payment Control Program, specifically including, but not limited to, automating the ledger and collection functions.

Section 334 requires the EDD Director to pursue specified methods to increase the collection of unemployment insurance benefit overpayments, including modifying automated overpayment detection system and ensure adequate staffing of the program.

Section 335 requires the department to conduct six specific tasks in consultation and coordination with the film and movie industry, the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, and the California Film Commission.

Section 336 requires the director to establish procedures to identify the transfer or acquisition of a business that is undertaken for purposes of obtaining a lower unemployment insurance contribution rate.

Section 339 requires the department to develop and, upon appropriation by the Legislature, implement a recession plan to prepare for an increase in unemployment insurance compensation benefits claims due to an economic recession. The plan must detail how to respond to economic downturns with a predetermined strategy that has considered the full effect on the department’s operations as well as address 12 tasks.

Section 339.5 requires the department to conduct a feasibility study that examines the idea of extending unemployment insurance benefits to self-employed individuals and reports on what actions are necessary to implement the expansion. Also, the feasibility study will include, at a minimum, all of five specified provisions.

Section 340 requires the department to provide a plan for assessing the effectiveness of its fraud prevention and detection tools to the Senate Committee on Labor, Public Employment and Retirement, the Assembly Committee on Insurance, the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, the Assembly Committee on Budget, and the Joint Legislative Audit Committee. The department is required to analyze and assess the effectiveness of its fraud prevention and detection tools.