HELP Act

Healthy Employee Loss Prevention Act of 2014 or the HELP Act - Authorizes the following groups to petition for eligibility to apply for adjustment assistance to the Critical Employment Advisory Commission (established by this Act) and the governor of a state:

• a group of adversely affected workers;
• the certified or recognized union or other duly authorized representative of such workers; or
• employers of such workers, one-stop operators or one-stop partners, including state employment security agencies, or the state dislocated worker unit, on their behalf.

Defines "adversely affected worker" to mean an individual who, because of lack of work in adversely affected employment, has been been totally or partially separated from such employment, or has been totally separated from employment with the company in a subdivision of which adversely affected employment exists.

Directs the Commission to certify a group of adversely affected workers as eligible for adjustment assistance if:

• they were coal miners, coal utility workers, or other workers in the coal industry or a coal-dependent industry;
• a significant number of the company's workers have become, or are threatened to become, totally or partially separated or have experienced, or are threatened to experience, a significant reduction in wages; and
• the company's sales or production, or both, have caused a shift contributing to the worker's separation or threat of separation.

Requires any complete or partial separation or reduction in wages to be directly attributable to:

• actions by the federal government,
• the low-cost of other forms of energy,
• the existence of state-to-state electricity market competition, or
• other reasons the Commission determines.

Requires the payment of a readjustment allowance to an adversely affected worker covered by an eligibility certification who files an application for any week of unemployment, provided certain conditions have been met.

Requires the Commission to:

• make available employment and case management services, directly or through state agreements, to adversely affected workers as well as adversely affected incumbent workers; and
• approve training for such workers in cases where suitable employment is not available.

Authorizes states to use certain funds for adversely affected workers for payment of job search and relocation allowances.

Establishes the Commission and the Transition Adjustment Assistance Fund to carry out this Act.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov