Statement from Working Washington regarding the passage of SB 5061, the unbalanced unemployment reform bill:
Just three weeks into the legislative session, state leaders have scrambled with extraordinary speed and waived standard procedure in order to give out immediate unemployment tax breaks to businesses, while failing to address the needs of hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers who have struggled with devastating delays, unfair denials, and overpayment collections.
The bill they passed today — SB 5061— will reduce business taxes immediately, raise the minimum benefit for many workers in July, and make a few other changes. But SB 5061 fails to provide workers who have waited week after week for benefits with any assurance that their claims will be paid on a timely basis — or at all. It does nothing for tens of thousands of workers who have been sent notices threatening to send them to collections over “overpayments” of benefits. And SB 5061 creates a new subminimum benefit for the lowest-paid workers and even reduces weekly unemployment checks for workers paid less than $10,465 a year.
The Legislature’s failure to address the needs of unemployed workers — or even hear from workers in the House — will have devastating consequences. ESD’s ongoing failure to pay benefits on time will continue to force people back to work before it is safe. Thousands m ore will struggle to afford food and other basics as they are compelled to pay money to the state for “overpayment” collections. The system failure will continue to disproportionately impact people of color and immigrants, driving inequities in our communities even deeper. And workers across Washington will hear a clear message from our leaders: that state government does not care to listen to working people, that they won’t receive the support they are owed, and that their lives do not count at the State Capitol.
In the remainder of the session, we urge legislative leaders to do what they say: put people first by actually addressing the failure of our unemployment system, ensuring people are paid the benefits they’re owed, and providing wage replacement for immigrant workers. And we need to see the Legislature advance pro-worker policies like the Worker Protection Act with the same urgency they use to move forward tax cuts for business.
Public health, racial equity, and economic security lay in the balance. And one million workers who filed unemployment claims this year will be watching.