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Amend the bill in the emergency preamble by inserting after the 3rd paragraph the following:
‘Whereas, federal law has recently been amended to change the definition of a newly hired employee to include a person who had been previously employed by the same employer but separated from employment for 60 consecutive days; and’
Amend the bill by striking out everything after the enacting clause and before the emergency clause and inserting the following:
‘Sec. 1. 19-A MRSA §2154, sub-§1, as amended by PL 1997, c. 669, §2, is further amended to read:
 
1. Employment information; definition.  Upon notice by the department, anAn employer doing business in this State shall report to the department the hiring of a newly hired employee. For the purposes of this section, "newly hired employee" means a person who resides or works in this State to whom the employer anticipates paying earnings and who:
 
A.  Hiring of a person who resides or works in this State to whom the employer anticipates paying earnings; and
 
B.  Rehiring or return to work of an employee who was laid off, furloughed, separated, granted a leave without pay or terminated from employment.
 
C.  Was previously employed by the employer but who has been separated from that prior employment for at least 60 consecutive days; or
 
D.  Has not previously been employed by the employer.
Sec. 2. 19-A MRSA §2154, sub-§4, as enacted by PL 1995, c. 694, Pt. B, §2 and affected by Pt. E, §2, is amended to read:
 
4. Report.   An employer shall submit a report within 7 days of the hiring, rehiring or return to work of thedate that services for remuneration are first performed by a newly hired employee. The report must contain:
 
A. The employee's name, address, social security number and, date of birth and the most recent date that services for remuneration were first performed by the employee; and
 
B. The employer's name, address and employment security reference number or unified business identifier number.’
 
SUMMARY
This amendment provides a definition of "newly hired employee" that conforms with federal law. It defines a newly hired employee as a person who has not been previously employed by the employer or who has been separated from prior employment by the same employer for a period of at least 60 consecutive days.