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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TideGlider who wrote (99587)	2/8/2011 2:50:49 PM
From: lorne	1 Recommendation Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 224748

bama not going to like someone messing with his voter pool. TALLAHASSEE — With Florida’s unemployment rate at 12 percent, those receiving jobless benefits may soon receive less and have to do more to get that, while the amount that businesses and the government spend on benefits would be reduced. The state House and Senate are considering bills that would give more power to businesses fighting whether workers are eligible for compensation in the first place, then reduce the number of weeks the unemployed can receive benefits, require them to prove they are looking for work and make them take jobs paying far less than they were making before. Gov. Rick Scott, who will release his budget proposal today in the Central Florida town of Eustis, is expected to offer a jobless-benefits plan that is more drastic than the legislature’s. Among the changes Scott’s transition team recommended are requiring drug testing for applicants and requiring them to perform community service or other jobs to receive benefits. GOP urges strict rules for jobless: ‘Get real’ Leaders try to help businesses and want the unemployed to do more to get less in benefits. By Dara Kam Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau Monday, Feb. 7, 2011 palmbeachpost.com “What it really does is it casts jobless workers in Florida as shiftless, lazy drug addicts,” said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the Washington-based National Employment Law Project. “It’s blaming the victim.” Sen. Nancy Detert insists her bill, which would require laid-off workers to have a skills assessment before they can receive benefits and then to prove they are looking for a job, would get them back to work more quickly. “We have to do more to help people get off unemployment quicker, because after a couple of months you’re going to be too depressed to go out there and look,” said Detert, R-Venice. “It’s not like we’re dying to kick people when they’re down. This is costing millions and millions and we’re not even really helping anybody.” The proposal (SB 728) also would cut how long they can receive benefits from 26 weeks to 20 weeks. In the first 12 weeks of that period, those receiving benefits would be required to take any job paying at least 80 percent of their last salary, and in the last eight weeks they would have to take any job that pays at least as much as their unemployment compensation. “That’s where people are going to have reality therapy,” Detert said. “Some of these jobs are gone forever. Once you’re in, maybe you can work your way up ... but the best way to get a job is to already have a job.” But advocates for the unemployed, including Stettner, argue that such a change would keep workers stuck in low-paying jobs because they wouldn’t have time to look for jobs more suited to them and their careers. “The whole purpose is to get some breathing room,” Stettner said. One of the most contentious components of Detert’s bill would give employers an edge when decisions are made about workers’ unemployment compensation eligibility. The bill expands the definition of employee “misconduct” and gives businesses more leeway about firing workers for “insubordination” that would disqualify workers from being able to collect unemployment benefits. “They want to change the whole purpose of the program,” Stettner said. Most states, including Florida, rule liberally in favor of workers seeking compensation. Detert’s changes would flip that and give employers the benefit of the doubt, Stettner said. “If there’s a questionable he-said, she-said, it should go to the worker. ... They can call gross misconduct if someone’s uppity,” he said. “They’re definitely making it way in the favor of employers and really stigmatizing jobless workers.” Florida grants benefits to nearly all workers who apply, Detert said, including those who don’t deserve them. Calling the state’s unemployment compensation system, run by the Agency for Workforce Innovation, broken, she offered examples of cases where workers should not have received benefits but did. In one instance, a worker was fired for stealing food from the restaurant where he was employed. He was granted unemployment benefits because the law does not bar those who steal from their bosses from getting compensation. Detert’s bill would change that. Detert said she also found at least one instance where a worker was receiving benefits while he was in jail. His argument: He can look for work online while behind bars and post bond if he finds a job.