(A)Each employer
desiring to participate in a common rate shall make 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. One legal entity may not report nor pay
contributions for another legal entity by what may be known as a common
paymaster arrangement or by some other similar agreement.
(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 construed by the director as 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.
Five Year Review (FYR) Dates: 8/1/2022 and 08/01/2027
Certification: CERTIFIED ELECTRONICALLY
Date: 08/01/2022
Promulgated Under: 119.03
Statutory Authority: 4141.13
Rule Amplifies: 4141.24, 4141.25
Prior Effective Dates: 10/29/1993, 03/26/1999, 12/14/1999,
01/15/2001, 01/01/2006, 12/15/2011, 04/28/2017