Florida’s Requirement for Unemployment Benefits is Unconstitutional
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- Category: Blogs
- Created: Tuesday, 30 April 2013 12:20
- Published: Tuesday, 30 April 2013 16:09
It looks like Governor Scott again is on the wrong side of the law and the citizens of Florida.
Many of the poor, the minorities, people with disabilities, and workers with limited English proficiency do not own or understand how to operate a computer. Yet in 2011, Governor Scott reformed Florida’s unemployment insurance system by signing a bill, mandating Floridians to apply for unemployment benefits on a computer.
Before this change, 40% of Floridians who applied for unemployment benefits did so by using a phone. “A broken phone system coupled with no alternative to the online processes left many unemployed Floridians effectively shut out from much needed unemployment insurance,” said Valory Greenfield who was one of the attorneys who filed a complaint with the Labor Department.
The Miami Workers Center and the National Employment Law Project filed a complaint with the Labor Department when Governor Scott mandated that initial applicants for unemployment benefits must be online and take an online skills test. Thousands of Floridians failed to complete the math and reading test and this new rule drastically reduced the number of unemployed qualifying for benefits.
The governor also used the new law to slash benefits from 26 weeks to as few as 12 weeks.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Civil Rights Center has issued an initial finding that Florida’s requirement that all unemployment insurance claimants file their applications online and take an online skills test violates federal civil rights and anti-discrimination laws. The investigation by the Department of Labor found that information given in English on the Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity website was not translated correctly into Creole or Spanish. Sufficient phone help was lacking for residents looking for help from a live person and no notice was given that without taking the skills test, you could be exempt from getting benefits.
Florida has until May 28 to voluntarily fix the unemployment system or face a civil fine by the U.S. Attorney General’s office which could cut federal funding for the state’s unemployment program. Without the federal regulators looking over Governor Scott’s shoulder, there is no telling what he might try because he doesn’t care about everyone in the state.
There are tens of thousands of Floridian families who qualified for unemployment benefits and were refused access to a benefit they had worked for because of this new law. So, while actually creating barriers for unemployment benefits, Florida’s unemployment numbers appear to look great but they are inaccurate. Many of those who are unemployed never made it onto the unemployment state rolls because their application was refused.
Governor Scott and his administration have devastated these Floridian families and my hope is that the system can be corrected. These disenfranchised families should receive retroactive benefits.
Again Gov. Rick Scott is on the wrong side of the law and Floridian families. He cannot be trusted. He has never cared about minorities or the poor among Florida families, and Floridians will do well to remember this in 2014 in the election booth.