SOUTH BAY WORKFORCE INVESTMENT BOARD - 2011

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• Assisting workers to quickly return to productive positions in the labor force; • Assisting employers to explore alternatives to layoffs through human resource solutions; • Reducing the social and economic burdens of unemployment on employers, workers, and the community; and • Providing communities, workforce investment partners, employers, and workers with timely and pertinent information to anticipate and profit from economic development opportunities. Required RR activities include: • Immediate and on -site contact with the employer, worker reps. and the community; • The provision of information and access to unemployment compensation benefits; comprehensive One -Stop services, and employment and training activities, including information on the TAA program and the NAFTA -TAA Program; • Guidance or financial assistance in establishing a voluntary labor- management committee, or a workforce transition committee comprised of employer, worker, and community reps., • The provision of emergency assistance adapted to the particular closing, layoff, or disaster; and • The provision of assistance to the local board and CEO(s) to develop a coordinated response to the dislocation event and, as needed, to develop an application for a National Emergency Grant. California EDD Directive WSD07 -2 states that, "The WIA defines RR activities as a State responsibility. However, it permits states to designate another entity to carry out these responsibilities." Accordingly, California uses a decentralized RR strategy under which it delegates its statewide RR responsibilities and awards RR funding to local entities to defray the costs of RR services provided in cooperation with the California EDD in response to local dislocation events. Because California's LWIBs perform the bulk of the State's RR functions, each of the LWIBs in this project has submitted ETA 9105 forms collectively identifying recent layoff events and announcements that form the basis of this application. Each layoff event affects 35 or more workers and the majority well exceed 50 in number. Using state - allocated RR funds, RR workshops have been conducted for many of the employers and employees identified for assistance. Rapid Response workshops are planned for other workers and employers as follow -up to initial employer contacts based on Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notices (WARNs), other formal employer notifications, and public announcements. Challenges — Early Contact With Dislocated Workers Often, it is difficult to contact workers who have been scheduled for termination while they are employed or at the time they are laid off. Some employers choose not to receive RR assistance while others notify their local RR representatives of a layoff action only after their workers have been released. Thus, information on available assistance and surveys that could otherwise help LWIAs gauge participant education levels, skill - levels, career interests, and retraining needs cannot be obtained on a 15