TAA Definitions
Advisory Form: TAA is required to track participants for reporting and funding purposes by the Federal Government. This is a simple form completed by the participant agreeing to keep TAA informed of current resident status, and giving TAA a contact person who doesn't live with the participant, but will know how TAA can reach the participant.
Alternative Trade Adjustment Assistance (ATAA) : Workers in firms with a significant number of workers over age 50 without easily transferable skills may choose to receive payments of 50 percent of the difference between pre-layoff wages and their reemployment wages. The maximum allowable over a two-year period is $10,000. The ATAA Program will be implemented in the fall of 2003.
Appropriate Training: This means that there is a direct relationship between the needs of the worker for skills training or remedial education and what would be provided by the training program under consideration for the worker, and that the worker has the mental and physical capabilities to undertake, make satisfactory progress in, and complete the training.
Basic TRA: Trade Readjustment Allowances (TRA) is a weekly benefit that begins after Unemployment Insurance benefits exhaust. Basic TRA entitlement is a fixed dollar amount payable within a 104-week period that begins with the first week following the worker's most recent TRA qualifying separation. To qualify for TRA the worker must have worked at least 26 weeks in the previous 52-week period, and earned at least $30.00 per week, prior their separation date.
Certification Date: The date on which a TAA petition was certified.
Customized Training : Training provided by an outside vendor and given at the company's location.
Downstream Producer : A firm that performs additional, value added production processes directly for a certified primary firm for articles that were the basis of certification. Downstream production can include final assembly or finishing.
Expiration Date: The date on a Trade Act certification by which a worker must be laid off in order to be covered by that certification.
Employer Based Training : Training provided by an employer to an employee who is engaged in productive work. The Trade Act Program will reimburse the employer 50% of your wages. No job retention requirements.
Full-time Training: Individuals in Trade Act approved training shall attend training full-time, and when other training is combined with OJT, attendance at both shall be not less than full-time. The hours in a day and days in a week of attendance in training shall be full-time in accordance with established hours and days of training of the training provider.
Good Standing: To be in "good standing" you are required to maintain at least a "C" average while you are in approved TAA training. If you fail to meet these requirements, you may be terminated from the program. You must also attend your training program full-time.
Impact Date: The date on the Trade Act certification when total or partial layoffs began or are threatened to begin. The impact date can be up to one year prior to the date of the petition.
Job Search : The TAA Program will pay 90% of your costs, up to $1,250, for you to search for employment outside the commuting area.
North American Free Trade Agreement--Transitional Adjustment Assistance (NAFTA-TAA): A federal program to assist workers to re-enter the workforce after they have become unemployed because of imports from or shift in production to Mexico and/or Canada. The NAFTA program was repealed on 8/06/02 and incorporated into the Trade Reform Act of 2002.
On-the-Job Training: Training provided by an employer to an employee who is engaged in productive work. The Trade Act Program will reimburse the employer 50% of your wages. The Trade Act of 2002 changed the name of this program to Employer Based Training.
Petition : An application to submit to determine eligibility for benefits offered by the TAA Program.
Pre-Approval : Regulations require that all training, job search and relocation programs must be pre-approved by the State Trade Act office.
Primary Firm: A firm directly affected by increased imports from or a shift in production to another country.
Reemployment Services: Basic services provided to trade-affected workers by workforce development agencies include the following: employment registration, employment counseling, vocational testing, job referral, job development, supportive services, job search workshop, and job finding club.
Relocation: The TAA Program will pay up to 90% of the costs to relocate to accept new employment, plus $1,250 to help you get settled in your new location. This is to move you, your family and your household belongings. You must provide proof of your hire with a new employer.
Remedial Education: Courses designed to increase educational level in certain areas of study (such as reading, math and language), that allow the participant to meet entry level requirements of a training program.
Remedial-Additional TRA : The client can receive up to 26 additional weeks of TRA if the worker requires remedial education. One week of remedial additional TRA is paid for each week of remedial education up to a maximum of 26 weeks.
Secondary Firm: Firms that supply materials and/or components to a primary firm (supplier firm), firms that assemble or finish products made by a primary firm (upstream producers) and family farmers or farm workers who do not meet the "group of workers" eligibility requirements.
Secondarily Affected Workers: A group of workers employed by supplier firms, upstream producers and farmers or farm workers employed by family farms whose employment has been adversely affected by the primary firm’s trade with or shifts in production to Canada or Mexico.
Separate Maintenance: Means maintaining another "second" residence, in addition to the individual’s regular place of residence, while attending a training facility outside the individuals commuting area.
Subsistence: Supplemental assistance necessary to cover the costs of separate maintenance (such as rent, utilities and food) when the training facility is located outside the commuting area. These costs will vary, but are usually 1/2 the federal per diem rate for the area where your training is taking place.
Suitable Employment: Work of a substantially equal or higher skill level, paying not less than 80% of the worker’s average weekly wage, which does not include self-employment or employment as an independent contractor.
Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA): A federal program that provides assistance such as job search, relocation assistance, retraining, income support, etc. to certified workers who have lost or will lose their jobs as a result of foreign trade.
Trade Readjustment Allowance (TRA): A weekly allowance payable to an adversely affected worker enrolled in or waived from training after entitlement to unemployment compensation has been exhausted.
Trade Reform Act of 2002 : On August 6, 2002 the President signed into law the Trade Adjustment Assistance Reform Act of 2002. This new law became effective November 4, 2002 for all companies certified for eligibility from this date forward.
TRA Waiver: If the worker is working on a training plan with an employment counselor, and their UI is exhausted, they may start drawing out their TRA benefits prior to starting training, or if an employment counselor determines that training is not appropriate for the worker, the worker can draw out their TRA benefits while actively seeking and reporting work search contacts.
Training: Can include formal, vocational, technical, or on the job training. Trade Act will pay 100% of tuition, books, fee’s, tools, and travel to training, if applicable. Maximum length of approved training is 104 weeks (in school) and the worker must be job ready upon completion.
Travel Subsistence: If your training program is more than 55 road miles one way from your home, you may be reimbursed for gasoline costs.
Unemployment Insurance (UI) : Weekly benefits payable to an individual under state or federal unemployment compensation law and includes regular compensation, additional compensation, extended compensation, and federal supplemental compensation.
Upstream Supplier : A firm that produces and supplies component parts directly to a certified primary firm. The component parts must be directly incorporated into articles that are produced by the primary form.
