Governor Rell’s Response on Unemployment Service Improvements “Too Little, Too Late”
by Matt O'Connor on January 12th
Members and leaders of unions in the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC) are reacting to Governor M. Jodi Rell’s lukewarm response to questions on her Administration’s improvements to the unemployment claims filing system. Residents have experienced extremely long waits at call centers and the Department of Labor’s (DOL) online filing system has not been able to handle the increased volume of electronic claimants. Cutbacks by the Rell Administration have resulted in fewer call center staff and less resources to cope with the nearly 160,000 unemployed workers in Connecticut.
“We simply do not have adequate staff and resources to help people weather the storm,” said Blair Bertaccini, president of AFSCME Local 269, who is a wage and hour enforcement agent for the Department of Labor. “The governor should have anticipated the increased demand on these services with the skyrocketing unemployment numbers and boosted resources to handle to huge demand.”
Bertaccini added that early retirement incentive shave reduced the number of permanent staff available to process claims at DOL’s central office. Meanwhile, the buildings that house the call centers in Hartford and Hamden would be unable to physically house additional workers or equipment should the governor make those resources available.
Staff at DOL and the Department of Information Technology (DOIT) have been pushing the Rell Administration to upgrade the antiquated phone and computer system for processing claims. Their response has been slow at best. Prior to the recent spike in news reporting on the delays, DOL staff were told that the computer software system would be upgraded in the summer of 2010.
“On Friday, the Governor stated that she had been working on these issues ‘for some time.’ We’ve seen little evidence of that,” said Lynn Coda-Klein, information technology analyst based at DOIT and member of CSEA/SEIU Local 2001. “We cannot waste another day, especially in these difficult economic times when people rely on their unemployment checks to feed their families and heat their homes. These are desperate times. They require strong leadership and forceful action, not empty promises.”
In the meantime, tens of thousands of state residents cannot get through to file their electronic or phone claims, sometimes for weeks at a time. Many people trying to file claims have been coming to DOL offices in person in the hopes of completing their applications. They are coming in such large numbers at some centers that local police have been called in to control the crowds.
AFSCME and CSEA are two of the thirteen unions in the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC), which serves to unite approximately 45,000 Connecticut State Employees to address issues of common concern. To learn more about the coalition’s campaign for a fair budget and a livable state with great public services visit www.InThisTogetherCT.org.
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January 23rd, 2010 at 9:57 am
E.R.I.P COMING?………Connecticut employee’s have given a very large amount of give backs ,thus doing there part in this crisis. Come this spring open the ERIP to 52-54 year old State employee’s…….Now is the time to decrease state government………Do it in one sweep……..
E-MAIL THE GOVERNOR and/or your STATE REPRESENTITIVE ask to OPEN UP THE ERIP AND SAVE CONN. Millions More during this economic crisis.
GOVERNOR RELL SERIOUSLY NOW IS THE TIME TO DOWNSIZE STATE GOVERMENT.
STATE WORKERS ARE READY TO GO AGAIN, YOU COULD DOWNSIZE NOW.
I AM SURE YOU HAVE A PULSE ON YOUR EMPLOYEE’S.