NEWS BROADCAST: Unemployment checks may be harder to get if Tallahassee measure passes

NEWS BROADCAST: Unemployment checks may be harder to get if Tallahassee measure passes

Saturday, February 5, 2011 TALLAHASSEE --
If a new measure moving through Tallahassee passes, unemployment checks would be more difficult to get.

State Republican Senator Nancy Detert has filed a bill to require anyone unemployed for more than 13 weeks to accept any job offer, as long as it pays at least what the state is paying in unemployment benefits.

The State of Florida has had to borrow $2 billion to provide for the amount of people receiving unemployment benefits.

Detert said she is skepticcal that many of Florida's unemployed are actively looking for a job.

Republican Senate President Mike Haridopolos said he would give the bill a fair hearing.

"There is one out of eight Floridians who aren't working right now. They want to work and we are going to do everything in our power to help them out. If some folks are gaming the system, then we need to look at it," said Haridoopolos.

Currently, unemployment benefits last 99 weeks. <more>


WTF? Unemployment compensation has not increased in over 12 years! The maximum doesn't even cover monthly living expenses! Senator NANCY DETERT must be so out of touch with reality to realize that IT'S A FULL-TIME JOB TRYING TO FIND ANOTHER JOB in this economy!!!

NANCY DETERT
941-480-3547
http://www.flsenate.gov/legislators/s23

Thanks for posting the article LadyBug. If it wasn't so GD sad it would be hilarious. If anyone knows what those morons in Tallahassee are smoking let me know....I would like to place an order please.

This was predictable given the recent political tides. If you figure that ~90% of the workforce is employed (or ~84% if you use the U6 unemployment rate) , the folks that are working are demanding that their representatives cut spending, reading exagerated reports of 99 weeks of benefits and unlimited extensions further stirs the pot and supports the political case for reform of the unemployment system.




http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/proposals-put-squeeze-on-floridas-jobless-1250220.html

Welfare
Immigration
Illegal Immigration
ACORN
Planned Parenthood
Outsourcing.....

Oh but nay. Let's pare down even further, Americans who've been most effected by the economy, who are losing or have already lost nearly everything.

I don't get it... The max is $275 a week (it hasn't increased in over 12 years). For those who were earning less than $550 from their lost jobs, they're eligible for about half that in weekly unemployment; I was taking home over $1100 weekly before mine and half the other jobs in my department were OFFSHORED... What would make anyone with half a brain think that we would prefer to stay home and try to live off of ONE-FOURTH of what we were earning at our old jobs?!?! LOOK AROUND PEOPLE, when was the last time that you saw signs posted "NOW HIRING" on any storefront - or even a MickeyDs?

And for those who say that the voters voted that arrogant SOB into the governor's office, they fail to remember that he slipped in by a slim majority -- and far less than 50% of the total votes cast!

DAYTONA NEWS JOURNAL

Attorney: Firms can challenge jobless claims
By VALERIE WHITNEY, Business Writer
April 18, 2011 12:05 AM
Posted in: Jobs DAYTONA BEACH -- The state law that allows people who are out of work to file for unemployment benefits also allows employers to challenge the system through an appeals process.

Companies which go that route are looking to save money in unemployment taxes since losing the appeal can be costly, especially for small firms.

The unemployment tax rate for firms in Florida now ranges from 1 percent to 5.4 percent.

This rate is charged against the first $7,000 in payroll per employee per year.


The money, paid into a pool by state employers, is used to pay unemployment benefits. State officials keep a tally of the number of former employees of a firm are collecting unemployment, which can cause the tax rate to spike.

Just how much it rises, however, is determined by the number of former employees drawing unemployment compared with the number of people still working for the firm, said attorney Samantha Giudici, who spoke at a Volusia Manufacturers Association event last week.

Giudici characterized the telephone appeals hearing as "trial by fire."

"It is the one and only time in the unemployment process you are allowed to present evidence," she told association members last week. "It is hard to prepare for, since you don't know what the employee is going to say," she said.

Jayne Fifer, Volusia Manufacturers Association president, said her organization's human resources committee polls members yearly to see what topics they are interested in learning more about and the appeals process was one.

Giudici, an employment law attorney with the law firm Harper Gerlach in Jacksonville. In her speech, she laid out a game plan for management filled with tips and strategies on how to win a telephone appeal.

An employee can be disqualified from receiving benefits for two reasons -- misconduct connected with work and when the person voluntarily quits without good cause, according to the law.

Giudici said inefficiency and unsatisfactory conduct does not rise to the legal definition of misconduct.

To win on those grounds, she said, the employer must provide evidence of such things as dishonesty, insubordination and excessive absenteeism on the part of the employee. "The key is knowing what you have to prove," she said.

Likewise, she noted dissatisfaction with a job or a change in duties for an employee is unlikely to be viewed by the hearing officer handling the appeal as good cause.

Giudici also advised employers to file appeals paperwork on time, be respectful of the hearing officer and refrain from using the occasion to exercise a personal vendetta against the employee

Oh, that's great! The now-former employer has lawyers at their fingertips representing THEIR best interests, but the former workerbee has to go it alone (unless they can afford counsel -- and on $275/week, ya ain't gonna be able to afford counsel)!

Personally, with all the crap that's going on in Tallahassee with the teabaggers, I want out of here! Except that I've gone through my savings, I've gone through most of my retirement funds (which was decimated by the stock market drop at the start of the recession WHEN I STILL HAD A JOB... I'm 51, just under the cutoff for the Medicare reform that's being proposed... My house is in foreclosure (cuz I couldn't stretch the unemployment to cover utilities, gas, car insurance, food and association fees, let alone mortgage and home insurance), I've given up on having any chance of retiring (even if there will be companies willing to hiring someone in her 70s, 80s, 90s when I get there). And the #$!@#$ teabaggers want to give the wealthy and business bigger tax breaks!

So how the heck can I move to a middle-class-friendly state that's prospering when I'm pretty much broke? I'm still seeing job descriptions that state "LOCAL CANDIDATES ONLY"... Would be nice if I had friends or family already living there, but no such luck...