Economic Security for Iowa Workers

Background

Years of rollbacks on workers’ rights, unemployment insurance, and collective bargaining have left Iowa’s workers in a precarious position. Senate Democrats are unveiling a legislative package designed to protect workers from unfair labor practices and reinforce the critical safety net of unemployment insurance. Re-prioritizing Iowa’s workers is crucial to the long-term health of Iowa’s economy and its continued growth. In order to attract and retain a growing workforce, a state must show that it values its workers. 

Legislative Package

Protecting Iowa’s Workers Against Wage Theft

Wage theft is a pervasive and persistent problem that isn’t limited to one industry. Iowa workers are without the necessary protections to ensure their employers are not garnishing wages unlawfully. According to a report by Common Good Iowa, 250,000 Iowa workers are impacted and collectively lose $900 million a year due to wage theft violations.

Senate Democrats are introducing SF 147 to strengthen Iowa’s weak wage theft laws. The legislation introduced seeks to require employers to have written records of the terms of employment, protect whistleblowers from retaliation, end the defense of “unintentionally” not paying workers, mandate Iowa to employ wage enforcement investigators, and increase the penalties on employers who commit wage theft violations. 

• Workers should be paid for their labor.
• All Iowa workers deserve the chance to earn a paycheck that respects their work, supports their family, and ensures their economic security.
• The businesses who are following the law also deserve a level playing field by not letting bad-acting employers get away with not paying their workers. 

An Unemployment System That Values Iowa Workers

After repeated cuts to the state’s unemployment system, Iowa’s workers have been left with a diminished safety net and a mess of bureaucratic hurdles designed to prevent Iowans from even applying for unemployment. 

Senate Democrats are introducing a series of bills to respect Iowa’s workers and rebuild the job loss safety net and make the unemployment process less complicated.

SF 157 restores unemployment benefits to 26 weeks (from 16), bringing Iowa back in line with the vast majority of the country.

SF 358 restores unemployment for plant closings to 39 weeks (from 26).

SF 372 waives unnecessary work search requirements for seasonal employees.

• Unemployment is an earned benefit and Iowa workers deserve better than the years of benefit cuts. 
• Every other week brings new headlines about plant closings or layoffs. Iowans who lose their jobs due to no fault of their own deserve a better system in place to ensure their financial stability while they search for new opportunities. 

• Short-term layoffs are commonplace for seasonal and temporary workers across Iowa. Although they’ll be returning to their positions in the future, they must complete arduous work-search requirements to access their earned unemployment benefits. 
• By eliminating some of the bureaucratic hurdles and making the unemployment process easier, we can get Iowans the benefits they’ve earned and help make the unemployment and job search process far less complicated and frustrating.
• By removing hoops for seasonal workers we will save time for both the workers themselves and also the businesses fielding applications from workers who are applying simply to fulfill a UI requirement. 

Restoring Collective Bargaining Rights for Public Sector Employees

In 2017, Iowa Republican lawmakers gutted public sector employees’ rights for collective bargaining. Prior to the law change, the law had served Iowans, employees, and public employers across Iowa well for more than 40 years. It simply required Iowans and their public employer (school, city, county, the state) to sit down and work together to discuss issues and reach mutually agreeable solutions in the workplace.

Senate Democrats are introducing SF 263 to repeal those harmful 2017 changes. This legislation will restore employees’ voices in the workplace, allow them to sit down with their employer to discuss issues like health and safety matters, and this restoration of rights will address the recruitment and retention of Iowa’s public employee workers. 

• Working Iowans have been stripped of the protections and dignity that used to come with an honest day’s work.
• For the second year in a row, Republican lawmakers have introduced bills to directly undermine our brothers and sisters in public sector unions. Senate Democrats are standing in solidarity with Iowa’s workers and fighting to restore the protections that keep Iowa’s workforce strong and secure.