Our take on the unemployment reform bill being heard today & how it can be expanded to better support unemployed workers

Working Washington and Fair Work Center support SB 5061, the unemployment reform proposal sponsored by Sens. Keiser and Conway which would raise the minimum weekly benefit, reduce employer unemployment taxes, and make other changes to a state unemployment system which has failed to do its job of paying benefits promptly to those who lose work. We also urge legislators to expand the bill to do more to support workers in need.

Working Washington and Fair Work Center have been organizing unemployed workers since the pandemic hit last March. We have connected with thousands of people across the state about their struggles with the unemployment system, and brought people together around some simple changes which would vastly improve the system by ensuring it provides workers the economic security they need.

However, while the current draft of SB 5061 does take some useful steps to improve the system for workers, the current draft does not address the single most important issue workers have faced: it fails to do what is necessary to give workers confidence they will receive benefits promptly when they lose work. The current bill also fails to place a moratorium on “overpayment notices” sent to workers, which means ESD could continue to take back benefits from people — during this pandemic, when they have no income — even in those cases where the initial erroneous payment was made by the department through no fault of the claimant.

Unemployed workers are giving remote testimony today emphasizing the need for a reform bill that actually provides needed reforms, including by setting a maximum timeline for the department to decide whether to pay a claim, waiving overpayment collections due to the pandemic, increasing accountability and transparency, and making other critical changes.

Legislators are also likely to hear from employers fearing cost increases. As we know, many employers recently received notices from ESD listing increases to their tax rates. And here in the first week of the session, the legislature is already scrambling to address the issue. Meanwhile thousands of people with no jobs and no income have received overpayment notices from ESD stating they owe tens of thousands of dollars back to the state — but the legislature has not taken steps to ease that burden on workers.

Workers need relief too.

Today’s hearing comes after a year in which the Employment Security Department has struggled with massive backlogs and slow payment, including long waits to pay initial claims that don’t have issues, long waits for identity verification, long waits for adjudication, long waits for appeals hearings, and even long waits to get someone to answer the phone or respond to online messages. As a result, many legislative offices have ended up serving as ESD adjunct call centers, hardly an ideal role. And while these systemic stresses and delays were certainly exacerbated by the pandemic, the underlying cause is deeper: because our unemployment system is designed to look for reasons to reject claims rather than pay benefits, because the system sets no date certain by which a claim will be addressed, and because the system establishes no real disincentives on employer behaviors that slow processing times, any pressure on the system inevitably leads to long delays for claimants. In fact, average waiting times last reported by ESD are more than two weeks for simple claims, and nearly 10 weeks for claims that require additional attention. And national data shows BIPOC workers have been more likely than white workers to become unemployed, but less likely to successfully collect benefits.

Long delays and slow payments are a crisis inside the crisis that undermines workers’ economic security when they need that security most. That’s why we are calling on the legislature to reset the system and put workers’ economic security first by establishing a firm timeline for determination that gives unemployed workers confidence that their claims will be dealt with promptly, waiving overpayments, increasing accountability and transparency, and making other changes that re-orient the system to paying benefits rather than rejecting claims.

On behalf of our members and supporters across the state, we also urge the legislature to advance a policy to establish a state income replacement program for immigrant workers who are barred from receiving unemployment benefits and have been excluded from all federal relief.

Economic security and public health are deeply linked. The legislature can address both issues by addressing the crisis in our unemployment system, ensuring prompt payment of benefits, and ensuring all workers who lose work can receive support, regardless of their immigration status.