The law aimed to cut unemployment spending by $140 million a year by curtailing eligibility, reducing the number of weeks of benefits, and making people use severances before they get benefits.
The severance provision "is not on a lot of people's radars," said Philadelphia lawyer Jonathan Segal, a Duane Morris L.L.P. partner who represents employers.
People can still receive all their unemployment benefits after the severance ends, but the idea is that they may find work before they have to draw from the fund.
The newly unemployed should check with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry for precise filing instructions.
Most of the new provisions have to do with eligibility, which affects low-wage workers who change jobs frequently. The severance provision, however, will affect middle- and upper-income employees.
Analyst Maurice Emsellem, who tracks unemployment for the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group, said the provision hurts "those workers with the most seniority on the job."
"That includes lots of workers in manufacturing and other 'displaced' workers already hit very hard by this recession and having an especially hard time finding new work that pays anywhere near their prior pay," Emsellem said in an interview conducted in June, when the bill was coming up for a vote.
Among those likely to be affected is mechanic David Miller. president of the United Steel Workers Local 10-901, he expects to lose his job at Sunoco's Marcus Hook refinery by Feb. 29.
He said the refinery employs about 340 hourly workers and 300 in management.
The union's contract does not provide for severance, he said, but in a 2009 layoff, Sunoco gave two weeks' severance for each year of service. That would put Miller, a 25-year employee, well above the $18,000 threshold.
