Let’s Talk About Fear and Cheating and Billions Stolen
by Steve Berman
July 23rd, 2020There’s a troubling trend I’m seeing in Georgia, and also in California, but in California it’s much worse due to the proliferation of unions. Fear of working in a coronavirus world has blue-collar, typically lower-wage workers staying home. Coupled with massive unemployment claims that have overwhelmed (at least Georgia) Department of Labor staff, this has led to massive cheating on claims, and likely payment of billions in fraudulent claims in the U.S.
I’ve known about the cheating for a while, given my day job. (No, I can’t say what that job is.) We see it as word spreads in certain immigrant communities “if you quit, you can claim unemployment and get $600 a week!†These employees then claim they have been exposed to coronavirus, or come up with bogus/vague medical direction to quarantine. Of course, we don’t want people at work who might have been exposed, so we keep them home.
Some of these employees qualify for Family First Emergency Paid Sick Leave (FF-EPSL), and some don’t. But employers have a problem in that if we examine claims too closely, we could end up not approving someone who actually was exposed, or be accused of failing to protect workers who are coming in by telling someone who wants to quarantine they won’t get paid, leading them to come in and spread the virus at work.
It’s a Catch-22.
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https://theresurgent.com/2020/07/23/lets-talk-about-fear-and-cheating-and-billions-stolen/
