On March 16, 2020, Governor Walz signed Emergency Executive Order 20-5, which addresses unemployment insurance (UI) in Minnesota for workers who are unemployed as a direct or indirect result of COVID-19. Some of the key pieces of the Emergency Executive Order include:
- For individuals who establish an UI benefit account between March 1 – December 31, 2020, the normal one week waiting period before an individual can collect UI benefits is waived. This is intended to allow workers to become eligible for UI as quickly as possible. Applicants can apply online at www.uimn.org.
- Any UI benefits paid as a result of the pandemic will not be used when calculating an employer’s future UI tax rate. This is intended to provide relief for employers and to better allow employees to access UI benefits.
- Most leaves of absence will be presumed to be involuntarily. Included is time off because an employee’s school, daycare or childcare is closed or unavailable, provided the individual made a reasonable effort to obtain other childcare and requested time off or other accommodation from the individual’s employer and no such reasonable accommodation was available.
