AUGUSTA - Rep. Amy Roeder, D-Bangor, introduced legislation Tuesday before the Legislature's Labor and Housing Committee that would increase access to severance pay for Maine workers.
Current law requires industrial and commercial facilities with more than 100 employees to provide severance pay due to the closing, substantial shutdown or relocation of 100 miles or more of their establishment. It also requires an employee to work with their employer for a minimum of three years to be eligible for this severance pay.
LD 12 would expand this provision to all workplaces outside of the industrial and commercial sectors.
"To lose your livelihood and not have the small support of a severance package is unbearable for many," said Roeder. "Employees, regardless of the sector in which they work, should not be penalized and miss out on severance pay due to the closure or relocation of their employer, which is out of their control. This bill will help bridge the gap for all workers until their next employment opportunity."
"This bill repeals language as necessary to correct the potential exclusion from coverage of some large employers operating in the service, not-for-profit and possible other sectors that are not clearly within the category of industrial or commercial," said Michael Roland, Director of the Maine Department of Labors Bureau of Labor Standards, in testimony to the Committee on Labor and Housing. "Originally adopted in 1979, Maine's statute regarding severance pay and notification still covers only 'industrial or commercial' facilities, which were prevalent at the time but no longer employ as large a proportion of Maine's workforce."
LD 12 will come before the committee for a work session on Tuesday, February 14 at 1:00 p.m. and can be livestreamed here.
Roeder is serving her second term in the Maine House of Representatives and is House chair of the Legislature's Labor and Housing Committee. She represents House District 23, which includes a portion of Bangor.
Contact:
Brian Lee [Roeder], 305-965-2744