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The state Department of Labor expects to have 200 people answering phones this week, the highest number yet – and says it could hit 400 call takers “as staffing allows.” Wait times are down for callers.
But that doesn’t mean things are back to normal at the Vermont Department of Labor, which has been swamped since the Covid-19 pandemic bloomed into a crisis in mid-March in Vermont.
For several weeks, callers had reported staying on hold for hours, only to have their call disconnected before they reached a person who could help them with their claim. On Monday, Interim Commissioner Mike Harrington said callers were waiting an average of just five minutes the week of April 27.
While there are still people who haven’t had their claims processed, the department has managed to clear many thousands of stuck claims in the last few weeks. Call-taking staff borrowed from Green Mountain Power have reported episodes with no wait times at all, said Harrington.
The department isn’t meeting the needs of all Vermonters who have filed claims, however. It’s still setting up a system that will process extensions for people who were already receiving up to 26 weeks of unemployment insurance before the pandemic hit. Under federal law, those workers are eligible for another 13 weeks of insurance.
Meanwhile, the department is turning to other issues, like the estimated 100,000 Vermonters who receive unemployment insurance through emergency state and federal programs instituted in late March as the full impact of Covid-related business closures were hitting workers.
Also, eight weeks into the crisis, the DOL has received 112 complaints about Covid-19-related health and safety problems in workplaces. In response to those complaints, the department has sent out 75 inquiry letters and is investigating four, said Kyle Thweatt, a spokesperson for the department.
From early on, the DOL has heard from people who were concerned that their employer was staying open despite business closures, or that the employer wasn’t following safety measures laid out by Vermont Occupational Health and Safety, the Vermont Health Department, and now the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, which is offering sector-by-sector Covid-19 safety information.
“We get all kinds of complaints,” said Harrington. “Some of them are low enough in terms of risk and concern that we simply send a letter to the employer letting them know we received a complaint; they have to provide documentation that this isn’t truly an issue.”
For others, the DOL has followed up with visits to employers, said Harrington.
Meanwhile, the DOL is also hearing from employers who say their workers refuse to return to the workplace. The DOL sent out a letter May 1 repeating the existing guidance regarding unemployment insurance: if there is a job available, unemployment claimants are required to return to work.
People who receive unemployment benefits also get a $600 weekly check from the federal government, meaning that in many cases, they can make more by staying at home than they can by returning to their job or merely accepting the wages that some employers are offering after receiving federal Paycheck Protection Program loans.
“(W)e have heard from employers that individuals are refusing to work or accept their employment wages because they are ‘making more’ on unemployment,” Harrington said in the letter. “The Department wants to remind individuals that refusing suitable work (if you are able and available to work) or refusing employment wages through their employer, may disqualify them from receiving benefits and may constitute fraud which will be investigated.”
Under the Covid-19 emergency unemployment funding, workers can refuse to return if their employer isn’t taking the necessary steps to make the workplace safe. Those workers need to be able to document their concern so the DOL can validate it, Harrington said.
“We would have to follow up and make sure that was the case, but there is an exemption if they felt like they were being placed in some type of undue harm,” he said.
The DOL has been the target of severe criticism for weeks for the way it has handled the sudden influx of unemployment claims that started in mid-March. The department added call takers from Vermont Gas, Green Mountain Power, and Efficiency Vermont to handle the extra traffic, and expanded its contract with Maximus, a Virginia company that provides call-center services.
Before Covid-19, the DOL had just 15 call takers, Thweatt said. Now, he said, “The Department is working on a plan to expand Maximus beyond 200, up to 400 as staffing allows.”
Thweatt said the department is adding chatbots and call-back functions, something claimants have been asking for.
“We still don’t have the capacity we need to handle the call volume,” Harrington said May 4.
Unemployment claimants have also pressed the DOL to allow them to communicate with staff by email so they don’t have to spend time on hold. Harrington said on May 4 that adding email capacity would be difficult.
“We have limited resources, not only people who are answering the phone but people who are knowledgeable in unemployment insurance law and limited in their knowledge of how to administer the program,” said Harrington. “Right now if we open an email box and end up getting 4,000 emails, we’re literally pulling someone from the phone lines, or a group of people from the phone lines, to answer the email.”
“In our minds, the most effective way for us to get through this surge of claimants is by phone,” he said.
But email worked for Terri Merrill, who tried for weeks to help her son file for unemployment after he lost his restaurant job. She emailed unemployment insurance director Cameron Wood directly on May 3.
“I did not actually expect to hear back from him, but he responded on Sunday within hours of my email, saying the case was reviewed and my son was found eligible,” said Merrill, who lives in Waterbury. “Staff reached out Monday and finalized it. Now we will see if there is actual payment made.”
Merrill said she hopes others are seeing movement on their claims.
“I know there are still lots of young people out there that may not have help with all this and don’t know what to do next on getting resolution,” she said.
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