The Vermont Department of Labor announced Thursday that almost all of the workers to be laid off from IBM’s Vermont operations are eligible for extended federal unemployment benefits.
The benefits include: re-employment services; training, education and related expenses; allowances for trade readjustment, job search and relocation; and re-employment trade adjustment assistance.
Eligibility under the federal Trade Adjustment Act includes most workers who will lose their jobs at the global information technology corporation at the end of the month. The eligibility stems from the U.S. Department of Labor’s determining that most of the layoffs were precipitated by foreign trade.
The benefits extension will also cover any subsequent layoffs for two years from the date of certification.
Employees who are not deemed eligible in the most recent decision are those with the Power Systems Technology group and the the Game Chip Design group. The U.S. Department of Labor determined those positions were eliminated due to IBM’s consolidating services to another domestic facility or from the company’s simply deciding to eliminate a particular functionality.
“The Vermont Department of Labor is grateful for the strong support of Senator Sanders and Governor Shumlin in our pursuit of the Trade Certification from USDOL for the IBM workers,” Labor Commissioner Annie Noonan said in a news release.
“The State is committed to helping any dislocated worker, and the most important step is to go to a local Department of Labor office and ask for help,” she said.
