District businesses eyeing an alternative to layoffs might be allowed instead to slash the hours of their employees, who could then recover the lost wages through unemployment benefits, D.C. Council members have proposed.

The voluntary partial unemployment program was suggested by council members Muriel Bowser and Marion Barry, and initially backed by at least five of their colleagues. Rather than laying off one person to save 40 hours’ worth of salary and benefits, Bowser said, a business could choose to reduce four employees’ hours by 10, and those 10 hours could be recovered with unemployment insurance.