Pennsylvania Act 1968-232 — MANPOWER EMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING ACT

Act text

MANPOWER EMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING ACT
                 Act of Jul. 31, 1968, P.L. 736, No. 232              Cl. 43
                                  AN ACT

     Authorizing the Department of Community Affairs to plan and
        administer a Statewide manpower employment assistance and
        training program, requiring an annual report to the General
        Assembly and the Governor, providing for cooperation with
        other Federal and State agencies, and making an
        appropriation.

        Compiler's Note:  Section 301(a)(9) of Act 58 of 1996, which
            created the Department of Community and Economic
            Development and abolished the Department of Community
            Affairs, provided that housing, community assistance and
            other functions under Act 232 are transferred from the
            Department of Community Affairs to the Department of
            Community and Economic Development.

        The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
     hereby enacts as follows:

        Section 1.  Short Title.--This act shall be known and may be
     cited as the "Manpower Employment Assistance and Training Act."
        Section 2.  Findings and Purposes.--(a) The General Assembly
     finds that there are persons who lack the academic and
     vocational education and training necessary to obtain and hold
     employment in the present-day economy, and that there is a need
     to:
        (1)  Utilize fully the potentials of many individuals who are
     currently unemployed, underemployed, or employed in jobs or
     industries which are being rendered technologically obsolete;
        (2)  Erase the impediments to the full utilization of
     manpower fostered by discrimination against non-white minority
     groups in education, training and job placement;
        (3)  Cooperate with private enterprise to provide vocational
     and related education and training to strengthen the economy of
     the Commonwealth; and
        (4)  Eliminate the conditions which doom persons and families
     to lifelong unemployment, underemployment, and dependency upon
     the aid, care and support of welfare agencies.
        (b)  Pursuant to these findings, the General Assembly states
     that the purposes of this act are to:
        (1)  Authorize the establishment or support of programs to
     utilize all available manpower services;
        (2)  Provide the necessary services, programs, incentives,
     and opportunities to create full employment in the regular
     economy; and
        (3)  Develop useful skills through training, on-the-job
     supervision, and special work projects in order to create for
     individuals and their families financial independence, useful
     roles in the community, dignity and self-esteem.
        Section 3.  Definitions.--The following terms, whenever used
     or referred to in this act, shall have the following meanings,
     except in those instances where the context clearly indicates a
     different meaning:
        "County" means any county of the Commonwealth of
     Pennsylvania.
        "Department" means the Department of Community Affairs.
        "Municipality" means any city, borough, township or town.
        "Secretary" means the Secretary of Community Affairs.
        Section 4.  Program Authorization.--(a) The department is
     hereby authorized to:
        (1)  Organize, initiate, develop, and carry out, or assist in
     the development and administration of manpower programs for the
     employment of individuals;
        (2)  Adopt and assist in the adoption of practical methods of
     vocational training and guidance, or related programs of
     training and guidance;
        (3)  Establish or assist in the establishment of programs for
     the improvement of employment potentials of individuals;
        (4)  Rehabilitate or assist in the rehabilitation of
     disadvantaged persons, unemployed persons or underemployed
     persons;
        (5)  Employ such personnel as may be necessary to carry out
     the purposes of this act; and
        (6)  Exercise its powers to include, but not be limited to,
     the execution of the following programs:
        (i)  Funding of special transportation arrangements to allow
     individuals to reach the location of meaningful job
     opportunities;
        (ii)  Purchase of professionally directed educational
     training services;
        (iii)  Direct payments to trainees in the form of training,
     subsistence, and transportation allowances;
        (iv)  Contribute wage payments to public works projects;
        (v)  Reimbursement, in whole or in part, of the costs of job
     orientation and on-the-job training in commerce and industry;
        (vi)  Support of the staff costs for specialized recruitment,
     orientation and training of the hard-core unemployed by existing
     agencies;
        (vii)  Subsidization of specialized services designed to meet
     the social needs of the hard-core unemployed and their families;
     and
        (viii)  Aid employers in modifying their job specifications
     to allow more jobs to become available to the hard-core
     unemployed.
        (b)  The secretary is hereby authorized to contract with,
     cooperate with, enter into agreements with, make capital grants
     to, receive contributions or grants from any agency of the
     Federal government or of the Commonwealth, and any county or
     municipality, authority, corporation, organization, association,
     or person in the furtherance of the execution of powers
     contained in subsection (a) of section 4.
        Section 5.  General Powers and Duties; Regulations.--(a) It
     shall be the duty of the department to administer this act
     through employes and offices of the department, as provided
     herein and in accordance with rules and regulations promulgated
     by the department and agreements consummated between the
     department and any private nonprofit corporation.
        (b)  The department shall submit to the Governor and to each
     House of the General Assembly an annual report covering the
     administration and operation of this act, and shall make such
     recommendations for amendments to this act as it deems proper.
     Such reports and recommendations shall be presented on or before
     the thirty-first day of December of each year.
        (c)  In order to effectuate and enforce the provisions of
     this act, the department is authorized to promulgate necessary
     rules and regulations and prescribe conditions and procedures in
     order to assure compliance in carrying out the purposes for
     which grants may be made hereunder.
        Section 6.  Appropriations.--The sum of six million dollars
     ($6,000,000) is hereby specifically appropriated to the
     department to be used as authorized by this act.
        Section 7.  Separability.--Notwithstanding any other evidence
     of legislative intent it is hereby declared to be the
     controlling legislative intent that if any provision of this act
     or the application thereof to any person or circumstances is
     held invalid, the remainder of the act and the application of
     such provision to persons or circumstances other than those as
     to which it is held invalid, shall not be affected thereby.
        Section 8.  Effective Date.--This act shall take effect
     immediately.