§ 591. Eligibility for benefits. * 1. Unemployment. Benefits, except
as provided in section five hundred ninety-one-a of this title, shall be
paid only to a claimant who is totally unemployed and who is unable to
engage in his usual employment or in any other for which he is
reasonably fitted by training and experience. A claimant who is
receiving benefits under this article shall not be denied such benefits
pursuant to this subdivision or to subdivision two of this section
because of such claimant's service on a grand or petit jury of any state
or of the United States.

* NB Effective until November 21, 2024 or 30 days after the
commissioner of labor certifies that the department of labor has an
information technology system capable of accommodating the amendments in
chapter 277 of 2021, whichever occurs earlier (see chapter 56 of 2024
Pt.Z-§1 for further provisions)

* 1. Unemployment. Benefits, except as provided in section five
hundred ninety-one-a of this title, shall be paid only to a claimant who
is totally unemployed or partially unemployed. A claimant who is
receiving benefits under this article shall not be denied such benefits
pursuant to this subdivision or to subdivision two of this section
because of such claimant's service on a grand or petit jury of any state
or of the United States.

* NB Effective November 21, 2024 or 30 days after the commissioner of
labor certifies that the department of labor has an information
technology system capable of accommodating the amendments in chapter 277
of 2021, whichever occurs earlier (see chapter 56 of 2024 Pt.Z-§1 for
further provisions) -- NOTE: This is extended every fifteen days through
DOL notification letter until system is ready to be implemented until
December 7, 2025

* 1. Unemployment. Benefits shall be paid only to a claimant who is
totally unemployed or partially unemployed. A claimant who is receiving
benefits under this article shall not be denied such benefits pursuant
to this subdivision or to subdivision two of this section because of
such claimant's service on a grand or petit jury of any state or of the
United States.

* NB Effective December 7, 2025

* 2. Availability and capability. Except as provided in section five
hundred ninety-one-a of this title, no benefits shall be payable to any
claimant who is not capable of work or who is not ready, willing and
able to work in his usual employment or in any other for which he is
reasonably fitted by training and experience.

* NB Effective until December 7, 2025

* 2. Availability, capability, and work search. No benefits shall be
payable to any claimant who is not capable of work or who is not ready,
willing and able to work in his or her usual employment or in any other
for which he or she is reasonably fitted by training and experience and
who is not actively seeking work. In order to be actively seeking work a
claimant must be engaged in systematic and sustained efforts to find
work. The commissioner shall promulgate regulations defining systematic
and sustained efforts to find work and setting standards for the proof
of work search efforts. Such regulations shall take into account the
need for claimants to provide child care for their child or children.

* NB Effective December 7, 2025

3. Vacation period or holiday.

* (a) No benefits shall be payable to a claimant for any day during a
paid vacation period, or for a paid holiday, nor shall any such day be
considered a day of total unemployment under section five hundred
twenty-two of this article.

* NB Effective until November 21, 2024 or 30 days after the
commissioner of labor certifies that the department of labor has an
information technology system capable of accommodating the amendments in
chapter 277 of 2021, whichever occurs earlier (see chapter 56 of 2024
Pt.Z-§1 for further provisions)

* (a) Compensation paid to a claimant for any day during a paid
vacation period, or for a paid holiday, shall be considered compensation
from employment and shall be included in the calculation of a claimant's
benefit for partial unemployment as set forth in subdivision five of
section five hundred ninety of this article.

* NB Effective November 21, 2024 or 30 days after the commissioner of
labor certifies that the department of labor has an information
technology system capable of accommodating the amendments in chapter 277
of 2021, whichever occurs earlier (see chapter 56 of 2024 Pt.Z-§1 for
further provisions) -- NOTE: This is extended every fifteen days through
DOL notification letter until system is ready to be implemented

(b) The term "vacation period", as used in this subdivision, means the
time designated for vacation purposes in accordance with the collective
bargaining agreement or the employment contract or by the employer and
the claimant, his union, or his representative. If either the collective
bargaining agreement or the employment contract is silent as to such
time, or if there be no collective bargaining agreement or employment
contract, then the time so designated in writing and announced to the
employees in advance by the employer is to be considered such vacation
period.

(c) A paid vacation period or a paid holiday is a vacation period or a
holiday for which a claimant is given a payment or allowance not later
than thirty days thereafter, directly by his employer or through a fund,
trustee, custodian or like medium provided the amount thereof has been
contributed solely by the employer on behalf of the claimant and the
amount so contributed by the employer is paid over in full to the
claimant without any deductions other than those required by law, even
if such payment or allowance be deemed to be rumuneration for prior
services rendered as an accrued contractual right, and irrespective of
whether the employment has or has not been terminated.

(d) Any agreement expressed or implied by a claimant or by his union
or other representative to a plant or department shut down for vacation
purposes is not of itself to be considered either a withdrawal by such
employee from the labor market during the time of such vacation shut
down or to render him unavailable for employment during the time of such
vacation shut down.

4. (a) An unemployed individual shall be eligible to receive benefits
with respect to any week only if such individual participates in
reemployment services, such as job search assistance services, available
under any state or federal law, if the individual has been determined to
be likely to exhaust regular benefits and needs reemployment services
pursuant to a profiling system established by the commissioner, unless
the commissioner determines that:

(i) the individual has completed such services; or

(ii) there is justifiable cause for the claimant's failure to
participate in such services.

(b) Such profiling system shall be established pursuant to a plan of
the department which shall include, but not be limited to:

(i) specification of the profiling methodology, including factors used
to determine a claimant's required participation in reemployment
services and the statistical relationship of such factors to the
exhaustion of benefits by certain claimants;

(ii) standards to be used to insure that all claimants are uniformly
evaluated against the profiling criteria;

(iii) a description of criteria to be used to make assignments to
basic reemployment services offered;

(iv) procedures for notification of the right of appeal and for appeal
by a claimant of the profiling assessment and referral of the
department;

(v) an evaluation of the extent to which reemployment services are
available throughout the state and accessible to claimants;

(vi) a demonstration of efforts by the department to coordinate with
the local providers offering reemployment services, to avoid duplication
of services among providers offering similar reemployment services to
the same participant group;

(vii) policies and procedures for referrals to reemployment services,
including referrals to providers other than the department; and

(viii) guidelines governing the extent to which education and skills
or occupational training shall be offered.

(c) The department shall, at a time and in a manner consistent with
federal requirements, submit a report to the temporary president of the
senate and the speaker of the assembly on the profiling system
authorized herein except that such report:

(i) shall be submitted to the temporary president of the senate and
the speaker of the assembly no later than September first, nineteen
hundred ninety-five and annually thereafter, and

(ii) shall include data on the number of individuals profiled and the
number of profiled individuals exhausting benefits as well as a
description of the service or services provided to profiled individuals
and the number of individuals referred for reemployment services during
the program year ending the preceding June thirtieth.

5. Maximum combined payments. If a claimant is receiving benefits
pursuant to subdivision six of section fifteen of the workers'
compensation law, the unemployment benefits to which a claimant may be
entitled pursuant to this article shall be limited to the difference
between the amount of workers' compensation benefits and one hundred
percent of the claimant's average weekly wage.

6. Dismissal pay. * (a) No benefits shall be payable to a claimant
for any week during a dismissal period for which a claimant receives
dismissal pay, nor shall any day within such week be considered a day of
total unemployment under section five hundred twenty-two of this
article, if such weekly dismissal pay exceeds the maximum weekly benefit
rate.

* NB Effective until November 21, 2024 or 30 days after the
commissioner of labor certifies that the department of labor has an
information technology system capable of accommodating the amendments in
chapter 277 of 2021, whichever occurs earlier (see chapter 56 of 2024
Pt.Z-§1 for further provisions)

* (a) No benefits shall be payable to a claimant for any week during a
dismissal period for which a claimant receives dismissal pay if such
weekly dismissal pay exceeds the claimant's maximum weekly benefit rate
plus the claimant's partial benefit credit.

* NB Effective November 21, 2024 or 30 days after the commissioner of
labor certifies that the department of labor has an information
technology system capable of accommodating the amendments in chapter 277
of 2021, whichever occurs earlier (see chapter 56 of 2024 Pt.Z-§1 for
further provisions) -- NOTE: This is extended every fifteen days through
DOL notification letter until system is ready to be implemented

(b) The term "dismissal pay", as used in this subdivision, means one
or more payments made by an employer to an employee due to his or her
separation from service of the employer regardless of whether the
employer is legally bound by contract, statute or otherwise to make such
payments. The term does not include payments for pension, retirement,
accrued leave, and health insurance or payments for supplemental
unemployment benefits.

(c) The term "dismissal period", as used in this subdivision, means
the time designated for weeks of dismissal pay attributable to the
claimant's weekly earnings in accordance with the collective bargaining
agreement, employment contract, employer's dismissal policy, dismissal
agreement with the employer or other such agreement. If no such
agreement, contract or policy designates a dismissal period, then the
dismissal period shall be the time designated in writing in advance by
the employer to be considered the dismissal period. If no time period is
designated, the dismissal period shall commence on the day after the
claimant's last day of employment. If the dismissal payment is in a lump
sum amount or for an indefinite period, dismissal payments shall be
allocated on a weekly basis from the day after the claimant's last day
of employment and the claimant shall not be eligible for benefits for
any week for which it is determined that the claimant receives dismissal
pay. The amount of dismissal pay shall be allocated based on the
claimant's actual weekly remuneration paid by the employer during his or
her employment or, if such amount cannot be determined, the amount of
the claimant's average weekly wage for the highest calendar quarter.

(d) Notwithstanding the foregoing, the provisions of this subdivision
shall not apply during any weeks in which the initial payment of
dismissal pay is made more than thirty days from the last day of the
claimant's employment.