"Employing unit" means any individual or organization, including any partnership association, trust, estate, joint stock company, insurance company or corporation—domestic or foreign, the receiver, trustee in bankruptcy, trustee or successor or legal representative of a deceased person, which has, or subsequent to January 1, 1935, has employed one or more individuals working for it in South Carolina.

An employing unit providing employment in South Carolina, on a permanent or temporary basis, must file a status report with the commission. Do not report wages paid for employment in South Carolina to another state without the commission’s approval.

Form UCE - 151, Employer Status Report.

 

DEW decides whether workers’ employment status is as employees or independent contractors. The primary test is the right and authority to control and direct work.

The principal factors showing right of control include:

• Direct evidence of right or exercise of control
• Payment method
• Furnishing of equipment
• Right to fire.

An independent contractor contracts to do a job according to his or her own methods, without being subject to the employer’s control, other than the work’s results. Although a contract between parties is considered, the fact that it states the relationship as an independent contractor does not bind the DEW. Neither party can control the contract’s legal effect by its language. Questions? Call the Employer Status Section at 803.737.3075.

 

Four tests in the following order apply to each employee, not the employer:

1. Localization
An employee’s services are in employment and "localized" in a state if he performs all services in the state or performs a majority of his services in that state with incidental services performed outside it.

2. Base of Operations
If test 1 doesn’t apply in any state, an employee’s services are in employment in a state if he performs some of his services and his base of operations is there in that state as well. "Base of Operations" defined: a place of more or less permanent nature where the employee starts work and where he customarily returns to perform his contracted work.

3. Place of Direction and Control
If tests 1 and 2 don’t apply in any state, an employee’s services are in employment in a state if some of his services are performed there and his employer exercises general direction and control over him from that same state.

4. Residence of Employee
If tests 1, 2, and 3 don’t apply in any state, an employee’s services are in employment in a state where he performs some of his services, and he lives there as well.

 

For any week we determine an individual is unemployed due to vacation, the following rules apply:

1. No individual is considered unemployed in any week he receives vacation pay equal to a full week’s pay.
2. No individual is eligible to receive benefits or waiting week credit for any week during which he is unemployed due to a vacation shutdown when:
3. A written contract between employer and employees specifically provides a vacation period without pay, not to exceed two weeks per calendar year.
4. The individual was notified at the time of employment of the employer’s vacation policy providing for a vacation layoff without pay, not to exceed two weeks per calendar year.
5. The individual was paid regular wages for such week of unemployment.

Provisions A, B, and C above will not be applicable if the employer fails to comply with DEW regulations and procedures regarding the filing of a vacation policy and mass claims in connection with the vacation period.

To have a vacation policy approved, write a letter to:

Benefit Department Director
P. O. Box 1477
Columbia, SC 29202.

Your letter must outline your policy in regard to the vacation dates period(s) and how you notify employees. Submit any modifications to a previously approved vacation policy at least 30 days prior to the scheduled vacation period.

 

Keep payroll records that let an inspector determine workers eligible for partial benefits:

• Wages earned, by weeks as described in Regulation XV-B
• Whether any week was in fact a week less than full-time work
• Time lost, if any, by each such worker due to his unavailability for work

 

Section 41-31-630 of South Carolina Employment Security law, as amended, provides that employing units of nonprofit organizations, state, and local government entities can elect to pay the commission in lieu of contributions using one of two methods:

1. At each calendar quarter’s end, the commission will bill organizations electing to pay in lieu of contributions an amount equal to the full amount of regular benefits plus one-half the amount of extended benefits paid during the quarter employment occurred.
   
   The state or any political subdivision or any instrumentality must reimburse all extended benefits attributable to service performed in its employ.
   
   Bill payment must be made no later than 30 days after we mail the bill to the nonprofit organization’s last known address or otherwise delivered to it, unless an application for review and redetermination are underway in accordance with the following paragraph.
   
   The amount due in any commission bill is conclusive unless, not later than 15 days after the bill was mailed to its last known address or otherwise delivered to it, the organization files an application for redetermination explaining why the amount isn’t due. After giving the organization a reasonable opportunity for a fair hearing set forth by Section 41-35-720 provisions, the commission using facts and conclusion of law will affirm, modify, or reverse its original ruling with respect to the bill’s original amount.

2. Payment of 2 percent of the organization’s quarterly taxable payroll to the commission within 30 days after the relevant calendar quarter’s close. The commission will apply those funds to the organization’s bill under paragraph (1) of this section. At each calendar year’s end, the commission will determine whether total payments for such year are less or more than the total regular benefits plus one-half the extended benefits paid to individuals that calendar year based on wages. Each organization whose total payments for such year are less than the amount due are liable for the unpaid balance in accordance with paragraph (1) of this section. If total payments exceed the amount determined for the calendar year, all or a part of the excess may, at the commission’s discretion, be refunded or kept as part of the payments that may be required for the next calendar year.