AUGUSTA, Georgia (WJBF) – The Georgia Department of Labor comes up after multiple complaints from people across the CSRA about not receiving unemployment benefits or a recall.
NewsChannel 6 first brought you this story a year ago when people waited weeks for benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We have learned that while most people want to go to the labor exchange to resolve issues about unrequited benefits, you shouldn’t. And that’s exactly what James Smith Jr. did last year.
Now everything is 100 percent online.
“A notice stating that there will be a suspension until further notice due to COVID,” described James Smith Jr., who is unemployed.
That news came in April last year. James Smith Jr. said he was washing dishes in downtown Charlie Norwood VA in Augusta when he was laid off.
Smith stated, “I feel kind of depressed because I was making pretty good money on my social security and the money I had from the VA.”
The 40-year-old husband said he was just getting by. And last year called the unemployment office in the city center more than twice a month after applying for benefits last September.
“I drove down there and even if I take the city bus down 7th Street, you can look down from 7th Street and see that the employment office has no cars,” he said.
NewsChannel 6 also spoke to Kersha Cartwright, GA DOL Director of Communications. She said, “These career centers that we have across the state are only for rehabilitation services. You have never been an employment office. “
Cartwright said Georgia Department of Labor offices, like the one in downtown Augusta, offer résumé and job placement assistance. She said some benefits created for the pandemic have ended, such as Pandemic Emergency Compensation (PEUC) and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA). But 56,000 regular ones take place entirely online. But not everyone is paid.
Cartwright added, “You kind of have to look back at the main cause of unemployment and that is to be unemployed through no fault of your own. I think that’s where a lot of the breakup comes from. “
The lack of benefits led the Southern Poverty Law Center to file a class action lawsuit.
In Smith’s case, he’s ready to go back to work as a dishwasher, delivery man, or driver. He hopes the Department of Labor Commissioner Mark Butler knows his name now.
He said, “I just hope that he will look into my case very carefully so that I can be approved.”
We have brought Smith’s case and the many others in the CSRA to the attention of the Labor Commissioner’s office.
Here’s some advice from Cartwright. Unemployment claims only exist for one year. So you would have to resubmit if 52 weeks have passed since your submission.
To access unemployment needs online, click here.
To set up a reinstatement portal, click here.
