RS 36:301

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RS 36:301

CHAPTER 7. LOUISIANA WORKS

§301. Louisiana Works; creation; domicile; composition; purposes and functions

A. Louisiana Works is created and shall be a body corporate with the power to sue and be sued. The domicile of the department shall be in Baton Rouge. Louisiana Works shall be deemed to be one of the twenty departments of the executive branch of state government as provided in Article IV, Section 1 of the Constitution of Louisiana and as provided in this Title.

B. Louisiana Works, through its offices and officers, shall administer and enforce laws and programs designed to protect the economic and physical well-being of Louisiana's workforce and pursue the availability of the workforce to meet the needs of the economy. The department shall coordinate and administer programs conducted by the state, or jointly with federal agencies, in the area of labor-management relations, manpower evaluation and training, vocational rehabilitation, independent living, blind services, employment, unemployment and workers' compensation, job safety, and the licensing and regulation of certain types of work.

The department shall be responsible for delivering workforce development solutions for businesses and economic sectors of the economy and coordinating with other state agencies and offices for the delivery of workforce development solutions as provided for in R.S. 23:1801. The department shall perform functions related to administration of the community services block grant for which provision is initially made in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981.

C.(1) Louisiana Works shall be composed of the executive office of the secretary, the office of management and finance, the office of workforce development, the office of unemployment insurance administration, the office of workers' compensation administration, and such other offices as shall be created by law. The Louisiana Workforce Investment Council, as more specifically provided in R.S. 23:2042 et seq., shall be placed within the executive office of the secretary.

(2)Except when changes are necessary for the efficient delivery of workforce development solutions for businesses and economic sectors of the economy, whenever the secretary determines that the administration of the functions of the department may be more efficiently performed by eliminating, merging, or consolidating existing offices or establishing new offices, the secretary shall present a plan therefor to the legislature for its approval by statute.

Acts 1976, No. 513, §1. Amended by Acts 1977, No. 83, §1, eff. June 22, 1977; Acts 1981, Ex.Sess., No. 15, §1, eff. Nov. 19, 1981; Acts 1983, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 1, §3, eff. July 1, 1983; Acts 1987, No. 736, §1; Acts 1989, No. 512, §2, eff. Jan. 1, 1990; Acts 1992, No. 447, §2, eff. June 20, 1992; Acts 1997, No. 1172, §5, eff. June 30, 1997; Acts 2007, No. 113, §3; Acts 2008, No. 743, §3, eff. July 1, 2008; Acts 2009, No. 438, §15(A); Acts 2010, No. 939, §4, eff. July 1, 2010; Acts 2018, No. 380, §2, eff. June 30, 2018; Acts 2024, No. 330, §3; Acts 2025, No. 478, §10, eff. Oct. 1, 2025.