Agency Correspondence

              INDUSTRIAL C&tOSSION OF UTAH
March 2,  1966
Legislative Council
f tate of Utah
State Capitol Building
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114
Gentlemen:
The Advisory Council of the Industrial Commission of Utah at its
regular meeting, March 1, 1966, voted unconditionally Its disapproval of
the recommendation in the Hoover Commission Report that the Department of
Employment Security be moved from the Industrial Commission or Labor Depart-
ment to a Department of Health and Welfare Services. The Council then
directed its Chairman to so advise the Legislative Council of its action.
The Council in its deliberations pointed out that the Department
of Employment Security operates an insurance program for workers who are
regularly attached to the labor force and who are ready, able, and avail*
able to take work. The element of need has nothing to do with benefit
eligibility and no such stigma should be inferred as would be the case if
the administration were attached to welfare where the element of need is
the important consideration. Members of the labor force are entitled to
benefits aa a matter of right when they become unemployed, based not on
need but on their work history and their continuing attachment to the labor
market. Unemployed workers seek work through the Department's Employment
Service and through their own independent efforts. They seek to improve
their work status by further education and training, and the Department
assists them through Its programs developed in conjunction with employers,
the  IbbMN of Apprenticeship a*d fffalning, and the state  :;tati3^a?
facilities.
The Council taeabers representing workers made it very clear tlat
those they represented would be incensed if they were compelled to apply for
unemployment benefits or for work through an agency which had acy attachment
to a welfare program. The employer members of the Council joined the labor
members in stating that this is an insurance program and that irreparable
harm would be done by advancing a public image that the great labor force of
the etate was participating In welfare. This adverse public image ia one of
the things that the Council has worked so hard to prevent.
By reason of the nature of its program, the Department of Employment Security should remain under the jurisdiction of the state agency
having general responsibility over labor affaire.