(A) Each employer desiring to participate
in a common rate shall make an application in writing, signed by a duly
authorized representative. The application may, if the parties elect, be filed
as a joint request, signed by a duly authorized representative of each entity
desiring to participate in the common rate. Such application must be made on or
before the thirty-first of December of the year preceding that for which the
common rate is to apply. Each application shall contain the names and the
unemployment compensation account numbers of all the employers applying for the
common rate and a statement explaining the ownership common to each employer
applicant. In the event that such application is granted and a common rate
group is established, such common rate group shall be in force and effect
annually thereafter, provided that each member of the common rate group
continues to meet the eligibility requirements each year thereafter. The common
rate and the group shall be discontinued effective at the close of any calendar
year with respect to which the director determines that the requirements were
not met or in the event the participating employers or any one thereof shall
notify the director in writing by the thirty-first of December of that calendar
year of its wish to discontinue the use of a common rate effective the
thirty-first of December of that calendar year.
(1) To be eligible for a
common rate, each employer desiring to participate in the common rate
must:
(a) Be subject to Chapter 4141. of the Revised Code as of the
first day of the year for which the common rate is to apply;
(b) Be eligible for an experience rate on its own individual
experience;
(c) Have a positive balance in its account; and
(d) Be owned by the same business entity, business entities,
individual, or individuals and the business entity, business entities,
individual, or individuals must have controlling interest in each of the
employers to be included in the group.
(2) For the purposes of
this rule, "controlling interest" means that the business entity,
business entities, individual, or individuals own more than fifty per cent of
the employer as measured by shares of stock, partnership share, or other
appropriate measure of business interest ownership as determined by the
director.
(B) Each employer's account shall be
maintained as a separate entity, and each employer shall submit contribution
reports and shall be charged for benefits in the same manner as all other
employers.
(C) Common rates shall be determined by
finding the sum of the average annual payrolls and the sum of the positive
balances of all the members of the common rate group and computing the rate
under section 4141.24 and division (A) of section 4141.25 of the Revised
Code.
(D) If one of the employers in a group
granted a common rate shall have its status changed during the year because of
a sale, merger, reorganization, or any other cause, the common contribution
rate of the remainder of the group will continue in effect until the close of
the calendar year in which the status change was effective. The employer having
the change in status shall lose its right to the common rate as of the
effective date of the status change.
(E) No employer may participate in more
than one common rate group simultaneously. An employer participating in a
common rate group must request discontinuance of its participation in the
existing common rate group and be determined to have discontinued participation
in the existing common rate group before the employer may be considered
eligible to participate in a newly constituted common rate group. An
application for participation in a common rate group shall not be an implied
request for discontinuance of an existing common rate group.
(F) If the director finds that any
employer or group of employers participating in a common rate has failed or
neglected to comply with the Ohio law and the rules of the department of job
and family services, the director may, effective with the date of such failure
or neglect, discontinue such common rate.
