23-763. Shared work benefits; eligibility; requirements

A. An individual is eligible to receive shared work benefits with respect to any week only if, in addition to meeting the requirements of article 6 of this chapter as modified by subsection E of this section, the department finds that during the week:

1. The individual is employed as a member of an affected group in an approved plan that was approved before the week and is in effect for the week.

2. The individual's normal weekly hours of work were reduced at least ten per cent but not more than forty per cent.

3. The individual met the requirements of section 23-771, subsection A, paragraphs 3 and 4.

B. Eligible individuals may participate in training to enhance job skills, including employer sponsored training or worker training funded under the workforce investment act of 1998, if the training is approved by the department.

C. The department shall not pay an individual shared work benefits for more than twenty-six weeks in a benefit year, except that this limitation does not apply to a week if for the period consisting of the week and the immediately preceding twelve weeks the rate, not seasonally adjusted, of insured unemployment in this state is equal to or greater than four per cent.

D. The total amount of regular benefits and shared work benefits that the department pays to an individual for weeks in the individual's benefit year shall not exceed the total for the benefit year as provided in section 23-780.

E. Notwithstanding section 23-621 or any other provision of this chapter, for purposes of this article an individual is unemployed in any week for which compensation is payable to the individual, as an employee in an affected group, for less than the individual's normal weekly hours of work in accordance with an approved plan in effect for the week.