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Published Friday, February 03, 2012 in Local

Labor officials will work with employers on claims issues

By Rebecca Leftwich

The Newnan Times-Herald

Employers can protect themselves from fraudulent unemployment claims by working with the Georgia Department of Labor to put safeguards in place, according to Newnan Career Center Manager Peter Ludlow.

"We're all watching money come in the front door and not watching it going out the back door," Ludlow told the Coweta County Development Authority at its Thursday meeting. "There are people out there who could still be working if they had chosen to still be working, and it's because employers are not paying attention."

Ludlow stressed the importance of ensuring benefits are available for job-seekers who truly need them, but said he believes more diligence in searching would result in work for others who are receiving benefits.

"You have to treat a job search like a full-time job, eight hours a day," he said. "People who are doing that are finding jobs. There are jobs out there.

"Every one of us, if we have a choice to sit and watch TV, we will," Ludlow said. "But in this economy, we can't afford to."

Internet searches also frequently prove fruitless, with only 6 percent of jobs nationwide attained online.

"You can't just sit at home and play with a mouse," Ludlow said. "Face to face with an employer is the only way you are going to get a job."

With workers available and employers who need to fill positions, the labor department can act as a kind of matchmaker.

"We do have some good folks out there looking, and what employers need is someone who really wants to work," Ludlow said. "We're in the personality business."

However, "we've got to put the 'want to' back into the individual," he said.

"Forty-three percent of workers receiving unemployment benefits could still be working today," Ludlow said. "The unemployment rate would have been manageable and there never would have been a stimulus."

Accomplishing that requires front-end work for employers.

An unnecessary unemployment claim in which an employee "self-terminates" through policy violations, poor attendance or other infractions often is granted when an employer can't provide proof of those infractions.

"The biggest issue is documentation," Ludlow said. "The reason for termination is not the same as what they've written them up on."

Employers should prevent paying claims to employees terminated for just cause with adequate documentation, responding within a 48-hour window to GDOL separation inquiries, completing GDOL separation request forms and making sure the GDOL field tax office has correct contact information on file.

In addition, employers can help protect the Unemployment Trust Fund by reporting job refusals, new hires, failure to show up at scheduled interviews and GDOL-referred individuals who do not follow through with the application process.

For the GDOL's part, Ludlow says the organization is working with its hearing officers to ensure they act as disinterested third parties during the adjudication process.

Individual guidance for employers is also an option.

"I'd be more than happy to come out and sit down and go over issues with [employers]," Ludlow said. "You have to defend yourself. We need to make sure the dollars are there for people who need them. But for people having claims that shouldn't be, there needs to be a system in place to prevent that."

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