Vermont Legal Aid sued the Vermont Department of Labor on Wednesday over delays in hearing appeals on unemployment benefits.
The lawsuit is a class action on behalf of people who were denied unemployment compensation, wrongfully terminated from the compensation or asked to return some benefits.
A spokesperson for the labor department said it is reviewing the complaint.
In its complaint, filed in Vermont Superior Court in Washington County, Vermont Legal Aid said the law obligates the labor department to hold an unemployment hearing within 30 days after someone files an appeal.
Instead, the lawyers’ group said, more than 600 Vermonters have been waiting as long as six months to get their cases heard. Meanwhile, they are not getting unemployment benefits while they wait.
“These delays are violating not only state law, but also Vermonters’ due process rights,” said Kelli Kazmarski, an attorney in Legal Aid’s Poverty Law Project in a statement. “People are waiting months and months without benefits just to be heard before these errors can be corrected. That’s simply unacceptable.”
In its complaint, Vermont Legal Aid said the labor department promised in July that people who filed for unemployment could expect that, by the end of September, they would see a reduction in wait times for their appeals. That has not happened, according to the complaint.
Burlington resident Joshua Webb is one of four named plaintiffs represented by Vermont Legal Aid. Webb worked as a store assistant at City Market until April 2. Eight days later, he applied for unemployment benefits. In June, he was told he did not qualify for unemployment because he had a health condition that precluded him from working. He appealed on June 24, and has been waiting ever since. According to the complaint, Webb has depleted his savings.
“What the department of labor doesn’t seem to understand is that some promise of receiving any benefits I am due in the future does not pay my rent or other bills right now,” Webb said in a written statement. “Getting a lump sum of benefits I was owed six months after I appeal is not that helpful if I am already homeless by the time I receive the benefits!”
