Information concerning unemployment issues 08/17/2020

Hi All,

It has been brought to our attention, 2 years after our appeal, that some unemployment issues have surfaced. We are sending this out as a follow up on our correspondence of July 2nd, 2018 regarding the loss of our appeal of the unemployment decision.

At this point a handful of people have been contacted by the Unemployment Commission about repayment of the benefits they received during the strike.

Some because, after leaving the phone company and being employed by different businesses, have applied for unemployment benefits and some that were just notified out of the blue.

We recommend that employees who now find that they are denied or only receiving partial unemployment payments because of the overpayment and interest charges now go ahead and request the hardship waiver given their current out-of-work status. According to the unemployment commission there is no deadline on the time for requesting a waiver from the Commission. 

We were told that the Department of Labor – Unemployment Compensation would be issuing demand of payment letters after the 2018 appeal was lost. To our knowledge no letters were issued. Unless you have been contacted by the commission there is no reason to request a waiver at this time. It appears the commission is not making any effort to collect the overpayment and you are back to work and not receiving unemployment benefits.

Many of you have also contacted the Unemployment Commission and have already been told that you do not have a pending  benefit issue. If you fall into this category you should be all set.