RAILROAD UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE ACT

(As amended through 1976)

AN ACT To regulate interstate commerce by establishing an unemployment insurance system for individuals employed by certain employers engaged in interstate commerce, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

DEFINITIONS

SECTION 1. For the purposes of this Act, except when used in amending the provisions of other Acts—

(a) The term "employer” means any carrier (as defined in subsection (b) of this section), and any company which is directly or indirectly owned or controlled by one or more such carriers or under common control therewith, and which operates any equipment or facility or performs any service (except trucking service, casual service, and the causal operation of equipment or facilities) in connection with the transportation of passengers or property by railroad or the receipt, delivery, elevation, transfer in transit, refrigeration or icing, storage, or handling of property transported by railroad, and any receiver, trustee, or other individual or body, judicial or otherwise, when in the possession of the property or operating all or any part of the business of any such employer: Provided, however, That the term "employer" shall not include any street, interurban, or suburban electric railway, unless such railway is operating as a part of a general steam-railroad system of transportation, but shall not exclude any part of the general steam-railroad system of transportation now or hereafter operated by any other motive power. The Interstate Commerce Commission is hereby authorized and directed upon request of the Board, or upon complaint of any party interested, to determine after hearing whether any line operated by electric power falls within the terms of this proviso. The term "employer" shall also include railroad associations, traffic associations, tariff bureaus, demurrage bureaus, weighing and inspection bureaus, collection agencies, and other associations, bureaus, agencies, or organizations controlled and maintained wholly or principally by two or more employers as hereinbefore defined and engaged in the performance of services in connection with or incidental to railroad transportation; and railway labor organizations, national in scope, which have been or may be organized in accordance with the provisions of the Railway Labor Act, and their State and National legislative committees and their general committees and their insurance departments and their local lodges and divisions, established pursuant to the constitution and by-laws of such organizations. The term "employer" shall not include any com(493)

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pany by reason of its being engaged in the mining of coal, the supply. ing of coal to an employer where delivery is not beyond the mine tipple, and the operation of equipment or facilities therefor, or in any of such activities.

(b) The term "carrier" means an express company, sleeping-car company, or carrier by railroad, subject to part I of the Interstate Commerce Act.

(c) The term "company" includes corporations, associations, and joint-stock companies.

(d) The term "employee" (except when used in phrases establishing a different meaning) means any individual who is or has been (i) in the service of one or more employers for compensation, or (ii) an employee representative. The term "employee" shall include an employee of a local lodge or division defined as an employer in section 1(a) only if he was in the service of a carrier on or after August 29, 1935. The term "employee" includes an officer of an employer.

The term "employee" shall not include any individual while such individual is engaged in the physical operations consisting of the mining of coal, the preparation of coal, the handling (other than movement by rail with standard railroad locomotives) of coal not beyond the mine tipple, or the loading of coal at the tipple.

(e) An individual is in the service of an employer whether his service is rendered within or without the United States if (i) he is subject to the continuing authority of the employer to supervise and direct the manner of rendition of his service, or he is rendering professional or technical services and is integrated into the staff of the employer, or he is rendering, on the property used in the employer's operations, other personal services the rendition of which is integrated into the employer's operations, and (ii) he renders such service for compensation: Provided, however, That an individual shall be deemed to be in the service of an employer, other than a local lodge or division or a general committee of a railway-labor-organization employer, not conducting the principal part of its business in the United States only when he is rendering service to it in the United States; and an individual shall be deemed to be in the service of such a local lodge or division only if (1) all, or substantially all, the individuals constituting its membership are employees of an employer conducting the principal part of its business in the United States; or (2) the headquarters of such local lodge or division is located in the United States; and an individual shall be deemed to be in the service of such a general committee only if (1) he is representing a local lodge or division described in clause (1) or (2) immediately above; or (2) all, or substantially all, the individuals represented by it are employees of an employer conducting the principal part of its business in the United States; or (3) he acts in the capacity of a general chairman or an assistant general chairman of a general committee which represents individuals rendering service in the United States to an employer, but in such case if his office or headquarters is not located in the United States and the individuals represented by such general committee are employees of an employer not conducting the principal part of its business in the United States, only such proportion of the remuneration for such service shall be regarded as compensation as the proportion which the mileage in the United States under the juris

diction of such general committee bears to the total mileage under its jurisdiction, unless such mileage formula is inapplicable, in which case the Board may prescribe such other formula as it finds to be equitable, and if the application of such mileage formula, or such other formula as the Board may prescribe, would result in the compensation of the individual being less than 10 per centum of his remuneration for such service no part of such remuneration shall be regarded as compensation: Provided further, That an individual not a citizen or resident of the United States shall not be deemed to be in the service of an employer when rendering service outside of the United States to an employer who is required under the laws applicable in the place where the service is rendered to employ therein, in whole or in part, citizens or residents thereof.

(f) The term "employee representative" means any officer or official representative of a railway labor organization other than a labor organization included in the term employer as defined in section 1(a) who before or after August 29, 1935, was in the service of an employer as defined in section 1(a) and who is duly authorized and designated to represent employees in accordance with the Railway Labor Act, and any individual who is regularly assigned to or regularly employed by such officer or official representative in connection with the duties of his office.

(g) The term "employment" means service performed as an employee. For the purposes of determining eligibility for and the amount of benefits and the amount of contributions due pursuant to this Act, employment after June 30, 1940, in the service of a local lodge or division of a railway-labor-organization employer or as an employee representative shall be disregarded. For purposes of determining eligibility for and the amount of benefits and the amount of contributions due pursuant to this Act, employment as a delegate to a national or international convention of a railway labor organization defined as an "employer", in subsection (a) of this section, shall be disregarded if the individual having such employment has not previously rendered service, other than as such a delegate, which may be included in his "years of service" for purposes of the Railroad Retirement Act.1

(h) The term "registration period" means, with respect to any employee, the period which begins with the first day for which such employee registers at an employment office in accordance with such regulations as the Board may prescribe, and ends with whichever is the earlier of (i) the thirteenth day thereafter, or (ii) the day immediately preceding the day for which he next registers at a different employment office; and thereafter each period which begins with the first day for which he next registers at an employment office after the end of his last preceding registration period which began with a day for which he registered at an employment office and ends with whichever is the earlier of (i) the thirteenth day thereafter, or (ii) the day immediately preceding the day for which he next registers at a different employment office.

1 As amended by Public Law 746, 83d Cong., 2d sess.. 1954. An effect of this subsection is to cause an employee of a local lodge or division and an employee representative, with respect to employment after June 30, 1940, not to be a "qualified employee" under section 3 and not be subject to the provisions of section 8 as to contribution.

The term "registration period" means also, with respect to any employee, the period which begins with the first day with respect to which a statement of sickness for a "period of continuing sickness" (as defined in section 2(a) of this Act) is filed in his behalf in accordance with such regulations as the Board may prescribe, or the first such day after the end of a registration period which will have begun with a day with respect to which a statement of sickness for a "period of continuing sickness" (as defined in section 2(a) of this Act) was filed in his behalf, and ends with whichever is the earlier of (i) the thirteenth day thereafter, or (ii) the day immediately preceding the day with respect to which a statement of sickness for a new "period of continuing sickness" (as defined in section 2(a) of this Act) is filed in his behalf.

(i) The term "compensation” means any form of money remuneration, including pay for time lost but excluding tips, paid for services rendered as an employee to one or more employers, or as an employee representative: Provided, however, That in computing the compensation paid to any employee, no part of any month's compensation in excess of $300 for any month before July 1, 1954, or in excess of $350 for any month after June 30, 1954, and before the calendar month next following the month in which this Act was amended in 1959, or in excess of $400 for any month after the month in which this Act was so amended, shall be recognized. Such term does not include remuneration for service which is performed by a nonresident alien individual for the period he is temporarily present in the United States as a nonimmigrant under subparagraph (F) or (J) of section 101 (a) (15) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, and which is performed to carry out the purpose specified in subparagraph (F) or (J), as the case may be. A payment made by an employer to an individual through the employer's payroll shall be presumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to be compensation for service rendered by such individual as an employee of the employer in the period with respect to which the payment is made. An employee shall be deemed to be paid, "for time lost" the amount he is paid by an employer with respect to an identifiable period of absence from the active service of the employer, including absence on account of personal injury, and the amount he is paid by the employer for loss of earnings resulting from his displacement to a less remunerative position or occupation. If a payment is made by an employer with respect to a personal injury and includes pay for time lost, the total payment shall be deemed to be paid for time lost unless, at the time of payment, a part of such payment is specifically apportioned to factors other than time lost, in which event only such part of the payment as is not so apportioned shall be deemed to be paid for time lost. Compensation earned in any calendar month before 1947 shall be deemed paid in such month regardless of whether or when payment will have been in fact made, and compensation earned in any calendar year after 1946 but paid after the end of such calendar year shall be deemed to be compensation paid in the calendar year in which it will have been earned if it is so reported by the employer before February 1 of the next succeeding calendar year or, if the employee establishes, subject to the provisions of section 6 of this Act, the period during which such compensation will have been earned.