New State Websites Make It Easier for Employers to Snitch

[TexasTowelie]

Characterizing fear of COVID-19 infection as ‘unemployment fraud,’ states have begun to crack down on workers instead of supplying them with needed benefits.


As some states reopen from lockdowns amid still-increasing rates of coronavirus infection, workers may fear returning to work if employers can’t or won’t create safe workplaces. But a handful of states have created new websites for employers to report these employees for unemployment fraud.

As other outlets have reported, Ohio has set up a web page where employers can report “employees who quit or refuse work when it is available due to COVID-19,” thus making their employees ineligible for state unemployment. The link includes “covid fraud” in its web address. Iowa has set up a similar form for employers to “report unemployed claimants in Iowa who have refused legitimate job offers.”

Michele Evermore, senior policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project, says that this isn’t just a “pandemic-related thing” but that states have been aggressively looking to prosecute people for overpayment of unemployment insurance since before the current administration. The websites, however, indicate a new spotlight on the issue by states. Evermore added that states like Oklahoma and Texas are publicly encouraging employers to report employees who refuse to work. In Texas’s case, advocates pressured the state to revise its restrictive return-to-work policies. South Carolina has a step-by-step guide with screenshots to instruct employers on how to submit a Refusal to Work form.

“[This is a] bright flashing light of ‘fraud, fraud, fraud’ that for me is just like another example of the system’s overemphasis on unemployment fraud, rather than making sure we pay people who are out of work,” said Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation. He added that one reason states have been so slow in releasing unemployment benefits is that they’re “gun-shy” of overpaying unemployment benefits.

Read more: https://prospect.org/coronavirus/state-websites-employers-snitch-unemployment/
(American Prospect)

If they are looking for a fraud, they should start at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington D.C.