Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jan 2001
Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (AR)
Copyright: 2001 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc.
Contact:  121 East Capitol Avenue, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72201
Website: http://www.ardemgaz.com/
Forum: http://www.ardemgaz.com/info/voices.html
Author: Michael R. Wickline and Michael Rowett

BILL DENIES JOBLESS BENEFITS IN DRUG-TEST CASES

Lawmakers filed legislation Tuesday that would disqualify people who have 
been fired for testing positive for illegal drugs through drug screening 
from receiving unemployment benefits.

These people would be disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits 
from the date of filing their claims for unemployment benefits until they 
have 10 weeks of employment in which they have earned wages equal to at 
least their weekly benefit amount.

Sen. Tim Wooldridge, D-Paragould, said he and Sen. Claud Cash, D-Jonesboro, 
introduced Senate Bill 237 at the request of several human resource 
directors for major employers in northeast Arkansas. A drug-testing program 
helps preserve the safety of the work environment, he said. "It is not one 
of those gotcha things," Wooldridge said. If someone is using illegal drugs 
and the company's policy prohibits the use of these drugs, it would seem to 
be inconsistent for the company's former employees to be able to get 
unemployment benefits as a result of being fired for using illegal drugs, 
he said.

He said the bill is common-sense legislation. "We want to make our laws as 
protective of the worker as possible and friendly as possible to industry, 
too," he said.

House Bill 1351, filed Tuesday by Rep. Dean Elliott, R-Maumelle, would 
change state annexation law to make an annexation dependent upon approval 
of a majority of residents of the municipality seeking to annex land and of 
residents of the area slated for annexation.

Under Arkansas Code 14-40-303, votes from city residents and residents of 
the annexed area are combined to determine whether the annexation passes. 
Elliott introduced a similar bill during the 1999 session and withdrew it 
pending further study. In 1997, then-Rep. Joe Molinaro, D-Sherwood, 
introduced a bill to make annexations dependent upon a majority vote in the 
city and a 60 percent majority in the annexed area. Molinaro, too, withdrew 
his bill.
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