Pub. L. 95-250, tit. II, sec. 208

Sec. 208. (a) An affected employee (other than a short-service employee described in subsection (a) of section 209) shall be paid severance pay in accordance with this section if said employee: (1) has been on a continuous layoff from employment with the employee’s last affected employer for a period of at least twenty weeks subsequent to December 31, 1977; (2) has no definite recall date for work with the affected employer by whom the employee was laid off and no offer of suitable work by any affected employer; and (3) applies for severance pay during a week with respect to which said employee has not performed work for an affected employer: Provided, That this clause shall not result in denial of severance pay to an otherwise eligible employee who at the time of application is totally and permanently disabled as defined in the Social Security Act; or (4) was permanently separated from employment with an affected employer during the period beginning May 31, 1977, and ending on the date of enactment of this Act, as a result of the closure of the mill or plant in which said employee was employed and has not, since said separation, been employed by an affected employer. Provided, That an employee shall be deemed an affected employee for purposes of this section if said employee, meets the requirements of clauses (1), (2), and (3) of section 204(b). (b) The amount of severance pay payable to an employee shall be computed by multiplying the applicable number of weeks determined in accordance with subsection (c) by the amount of the weekly layoff 92 STAT. 180benefit (without reduction for earnings or other benefits) which is payable, or would be payable if the employee were eligible, for the week in which the application was filed: Provided, That for a seasonal employee the amount so calculated, plus the amount of vacation replacement benefits applicable for that year shall be multiplied by the number of weeks in said employees usual season, as determined in section 207(c), and the result divided by fifty-two. (c) The number of weeks of severance pay shall be equal to one week for each month of the employee’s creditable service up to a maximum of seventy-two weeks: Provided, That the severance payment to any employee shall not exceed the total amount of the weekly layoff and vacation replacement benefits which would have been payable if said employee were to be eligible for such benefits continuously from the week of application until the end of the applicable period of protection (or, in the case of an employee described in the final proviso of subsection (a), until the earlier of said employee’s sixty-fifth birthday or September 30, 1984), calculated on the basis of the weekly amounts of such benefits as of the date of application for severance pay. (d) Acceptance of severance pay terminates the affected employee’s period of protection and makes said employee ineligible thereafter for all other forms of terminal pay and for the protections provided in section 204, except as otherwise specifically provided in this Act. (e) Before making a severance payment to an employee, the Secretary shall obtain said employee’s written agreement that, upon resumption of employment in the industry within Humboldt and Del Norte Counties and the counties adjacent thereto in the State of California prior to September 30, 1980, or such later date established by the Secretary with respect to said employee pursuant to section 203, said employee will return it in weekly installments equal to a specified percentage of the employee’s earnings in the industry, which the Secretary shall set at a reasonable level. The agreement shall include authorization for the Secretary to arrange with an employer for withholding of the applicable amounts from the employee’s pay.