On February 8th, the US House Ways and Means Committee held a compelling hearing reviewing the dramatic increase in UI and temporary unemployment benefit programs enacted in response to COVID-19. The hearing, entitled “Hearing on the Greatest Theft of Tax Payer Dollars: Unchecked Unemployment Fraud” included testimony from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the USDOL Office [...]
On December 12, 2022, UWC submitted comments to the US Department of Labor asking that references to UI and Workers’ Compensation in the definition of “employee” and “independent contractor” be removed. (see attached).The comments make the fundamental points that. The US Department of Labor is not authorized under the FLSA to adopt rules under which to [...]
On Tuesday, October 11, 2022, the United States Department of Labor released a proposed rule designed to more specifically define the circumstances under which an individual may be classified as an employee or an independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act. See 2022-21454.pdf (federalregister.gov). The proposal has been viewed by some commentators as intended to [...]
On August 2, 2022 the US DOL Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued an Alert Memo from the Assistant Inspector General for Audit indicating that many states had not submitted reports required under the CARES Act or had reported no activity for periods in which the programs were in operation. See FINAL ALERT MEMO STATES COMPLIANCE CARES ACT [...]
On June 9, 2022, US House Republican Leadership announced legislation to improve the financing and systems used to address UI fraud, benefit integrity and overpayment recovery. The “Chase COVID Unemployment Fraud Act of 2022” includes the following provisions. Incentivizes states to recover fraudulent unemployment payments. Allows states to retain 25 percent of federal funds recovered from federal [...]
On March 3, 2022, Representative Danny K. Davis (D-IL) introduced the Continued Waiver of Interest on State Unemployment Loans during the Pandemic Act. This legislation would extend the waiver of interest payments on federal unemployment loans. Congress previously waived the interest on unemployment loans under Section 4103 of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), https://www.congress.gov/116/plaws/publ127/PLAW-116publ127.pdf, and extended the waiver through September [...]
On February 7, 2022, the US Department of Labor released UI-PL 20-21, Change 1 To provide additional instructions for circumstances under which a state may waive recovery of overpayments under the CARES Act Unemployment Compensation (UC) programs, including elaborating on the criteria for waiving recovery of overpayments where an individual is without fault on an individual, [...]
Two US Supreme Court decisions recently addressed the question of whether federal agencies had authority to require that individuals be vaccinated. In one decision the court addressed the authority of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to require employers with 100 or more employees to require their employees to be vaccinated. In the second decision [...]
The Texas Workforce Commission announced today (November 9, 2021), that Governor Abbott signed SB 8 making supplemental appropriations including appropriating approximately $7.2 billion to be used to retire Title XII Advances and replenish the UI Trust Fund to the statutory floor. The bill is effective immediately. Texas was among the list of 10 states and the [...]
On August 17, 2021, the US DOL ETA released UI PL 23-21 detailing the availability of up to $260 million in funding for activities that promote equitable access to UC programs, which include eliminating administrative barriers to benefit application, reducing state workload backlogs, improving the timeliness of UC payments to eligible individuals, and ensuring equity in [...]
