{"id":21448,"date":"2020-07-06T03:48:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T00:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/nyc-grocers-struggle-to-hire-while-workers-bank-on-unemployment-claims\/"},"modified":"2020-07-06T03:48:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T00:48:00","slug":"nyc-grocers-struggle-to-hire-while-workers-bank-on-unemployment-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nyc-grocers-struggle-to-hire-while-workers-bank-on-unemployment-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"#NYC grocers struggle to hire while workers bank on unemployment claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#NYC grocers struggle to hire while workers bank on unemployment claims<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n New York City supermarkets are getting inundated with unemployment claims \u2014 while most of them are looking to hire workers during the coronavirus lockdown, not fire them.<\/p>\n

Morton Williams, which operates 16 stores in the New York metro area, was slammed with 400 claims at the height of the pandemic in March and April \u2014 up tenfold from a year earlier, co-owner Steven Sloan told The Post. Through June, claims have risen to about 600 \u2014 or about half the workers on the payroll, he said.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, during that time Sloan said Morton Williams has laid off only three people as grocery demand went through the roof. Yet by the end of May, more than 160 ex-staffers were drawing weekly benefits OK\u2019d by the state, he said.<\/p>\n

In the past, it was rare that the New York Department of Labor would pay a claim the supermarket disputed, and if they did, they would explain themselves, Sloan said.<\/p>\n

That practice changed with the outbreak of the coronavirus, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn three months I have not received a single explanation about why former employees are being paid when I have disputed their claims,\u201d Sloan told The Post. \u201cSo, I don\u2019t know what their reasoning is. I can\u2019t argue any of these cases if we don\u2019t know what the rules are.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the federal government\u2019s CARES Act paying out $600 a week on top of state unemployment checks, many grocery workers stand to make more on unemployment than they would working at the store. That has helped to spur a tidal wave of claim app<\/a>lications, and the city\u2019s grocers \u2014 which have boasted steady business since mid-March \u2014 say they\u2019re struggling to deal with the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing confusing claims from people who haven\u2019t notified us that they are leaving,\u201d said Sal Bonavita, who owns two Key Food stores in the Bronx. \u201cWe haven\u2019t laid off anyone and yet we are seeing much higher volumes of unemployment claims.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe benefits are a key reason why people are not applying for jobs at our stores right now,\u201d he added. He usually has 16 employees but is currently short eight staffers.<\/p>\n

The CARES Act, passed by Congress in March, also releases benefits to workers who claim they are caring for a family member with COVID-19, or to those who are the primary caregiver for a child.<\/p>\n

Those changes \u2014 combined with the federal stimulus checks for taxpayers \u2014 have spurred some workers to seize the advantage.<\/p>\n

Sloan said two young store clerks recently filed for benefits even though they are still working for Morton Williams. When they were confronted by a manager they \u201cadmitted they had filed for unemployment, explaining that they were told if you file you can get extra money,\u201d Sloan said.<\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/img>
Steven Sloan, co-owner of Morton Williams Supermarkets<\/span>James Messerschmidt<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back in April, Sloan added, a cashier got fired for failing to charge a customer for $200 worth of groceries, and soon started receiving state checks for $284 per week, despite the chain disputing the claim.<\/p>\n

An employee at a Midtown location quit his job in March after telling his boss he was worried about his own health safety, citing the pandemic. He started receiving weekly checks of $341 \u2014 despite the supermarket\u2019s protestations, Sloan said.<\/p>\n

Indeed, workers who quit their jobs or are fired from them shouldn\u2019t qualify workers for benefits, said Deanna Cohen, a spokesperson for the New York Department of Labor, adding that \u201cif someone misrepresents their situation to get benefits they are committing fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a rigorous application and screening process to weed out fraudulent claims and ensure only eligible New Yorkers receive benefits,\u201d Cohen said via email. \u201cThis system has not changed during this crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding to the confusion, organized crime rings have been filing fraudulent claims on behalf of people who are currently working, according to reports. Sloan said he has encountered the problem in a handful of instances in which he has received claims for employees who never stopped working and told him that they did not file a claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no guidance from state governments on how premiums will be impacted,\u201d labor lawyer Darren Oved of Oved & Oved LLP told The Post. \u201cUnemployment insurance rates will go up almost certainly.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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“#NYC grocers struggle to hire while workers bank on unemployment claims” New York City supermarkets are getting inundated with unemployment claims \u2014 while most of them are looking to hire workers during the coronavirus lockdown, not fire them. Morton Williams, which operates 16 stores in the New York metro area, was slammed with 400 claims…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[33273],"class_list":["post-21448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-nyc-grocers-struggle-to-hire-while-workers-bank-on-unemployment-claims"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}