Christine Tartaglione's Labor Report

Pennsylvanians who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19 and are collecting unemployment benefits should apply as soon as possible for additional benefits available through the Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) program, Secretary of Labor & Industry Jerry Oleksiak said.

LWA could provide eligible individuals with an additional $300 per week for up to six weeks. To collect LWA, individuals must have received benefits of at least $100 per week for the claim weeks ending August 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29, as well as September 5. Individuals may be eligible for fewer than six weeks of LWA if they did not receive at least $100 in base benefits for any of those weeks.

“We encourage eligible claimants who are partially or fully unemployed due to COVID-19 who have not yet applied for LWA benefits to do so right away,” Secretary Oleksiak said. “The department will continue making these payments until the program funding we’ve already received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is depleted.”

FEMA announced last week that its funding had been depleted and it would be unable to provide additional funding to states to continue the LWA program beyond the week ending September 5. The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) received about $2.8 billion for the six weeks of the program. After this funding is depleted, L&I will be unable to approve additional claims, even if more applicants meet the eligibility qualifications.

To be eligible, applicants must have received at least $100 in benefits for each eligible week from one or more of the following programs:
● Regular Unemployment Compensation (UC)
● Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC)
● Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA)
● Pennsylvania Extended Benefits (EB)
● Shared Work or Short-Time Compensation (STC)
● Trade Readjustment Allowances (TRA)

Those who received PUA or Shared Work benefits do not need to apply for LWA. They are approved automatically because they have already certified that they lost their jobs due to COVID-19. However, those who have been receiving UC, PEUC, EB, or TRA must apply and certify by visiting www.uc.pa.gov/cert and logging in using your PIN as if to file a biweekly claim. They must then click on the “Complete LWA Certification” link.

Alcohol Service Hours Extended, Capacity Expanded for PA Restaurants

Allowable restaurant occupancies will increase to 50% of full capacity, while the hours of allowable alcoholic beverage sales will be extended by one hour to 11 p.m. starting on September 21 under new executive orders issued by Governor Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Rachel Levine.

Previously, restaurant occupancy was capped at 25% and alcoholic beverage sales were prohibited after 10 p.m. as part of the Commonwealth’s COVID-19 mitigation efforts. Under the new orders, sales may continue until 11 p.m. and patrons must not possess alcoholic beverages on premises after midnight.

“As we continue to take critical steps to continue to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, we also recognize that this pandemic has taken a significant toll on the food services industry, so we must balance public health and economic recovery,” Governor Wolf said. “These orders give restaurants the ability to increase indoor occupancy safely while giving customers confidence when deciding to patronize a restaurant.”

Restaurants may increase their allowable capacity from 25% to 50% by completing a self-certification process. Documents can be submitted to an Open & Certified Pennsylvania database starting on September 21. Information about the process and the necessary documents will be posted online as of that date. The information will include:
● A list of requirements contained in the current restaurant industry guidance and enforcement efforts
● A statement that the owner has reviewed and agrees to follow these requirements
● The business’ maximum indoor occupancy number based on the fire code
● A statement that the owner understands that the certification is subject to penalties for unsworn falsification to authorities

Restaurants that self-certify will appear in an Open & Certified Pennsylvania searchable online database and will receive branded materials such as window decals and signage, which they can display for patrons and employees.

Enforcement of the 50% occupancy policy will begin on October 5. Restaurant owners with additional questions about self-certification may contact covidselfcert@pa.gov.

Pennsylvania Unemployment System Update Progressing Despite Pandemic-Related Challenges

Despite challenges caused by the sudden influx of millions of pandemic-related unemployment claims, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) is making progress on its Benefits Modernization (BenMod) initiative, which will implement a new computer system to administer the state’s Unemployment Compensation (UC) program and replace the 50-year-old system now in use.

However, due to the heavy demands of the pandemic on L&I staffing, the implementation of the new BenMod system could be delayed from the October 5, 2020, timeline previously adopted by the Department.

L&I Secretary Jerry Oleksiak testified during a September 17 hearing of the House Labor & Industry Committee that, “Since March 2020, L&I has responded to the most significant unemployment crisis since the Great Depression and today, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate remains in double-digits. The pandemic has put tremendous strain on our staff’s capacity to process claims and this has continued even as we have found additional staffing support. Since March, we have more than doubled the staffing levels for our UC Service Centers. This has drastically improved our ability to respond to emails, phone calls, and chats, but ultimately it is a math problem: a person can only write so many emails or answer so many complex calls a day.”

L&I achieved its UC staffing increases by reassigning and retraining staff from other units within the Department. Since March 15, it has issued almost $28 billion dollars in payments to jobless workers through the UC program and through four newly implemented federal programs, as well as the state’s new Extended Benefits program.

Approximately $21 billion of that total has been issued through the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Federal Pandemic Emergency Compensation (FPUC) programs that did not exist before the pandemic and that the Department implemented on the fly using the same vendor that is leading the BenMod initiative.

“While all these legislative pieces have diverted staff time and resources away from BenMod, PUA has remained by far the most challenging and labor-intensive as we work with [the vendor] to implement a standalone system, deliver system functionality, and combat a sophisticated fraud scheme, one that affected states across the country as well as Pennsylvania,” the Secretary said.

The Department and Office of Information Technology (OIT) will meet on Monday, September 21, to consider postponing the October 5 launch date and consider input from legislators and the BenMod Advisory Committee.

PA Court Considers Workers’ Comp Case Involving Formerly Incarcerated Employee

Under Pennsylvania law, an employer may withhold workers’ compensation benefits from any employee who is incarcerated after the employee’s conviction of a crime. The suspension of workers’ comp is limited to the period of incarceration post-conviction.

But that seemingly cut-and-dry statute has become the subject of a Pennsylvania Supreme Court case in which the employee in question served time before his trial but didn’t spend a day behind bars after his conviction.

The Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company is seeking to reverse a lower court decision preventing it from suspending the employee’s benefits now to make up for the 525 days of benefits that the company paid while the employee was in jail awaiting trial. The employee served all his jail time pre-trial because he was unable to post bail and, upon his conviction, the trial judge sentenced him to the time he had already served.

The high court has yet to decide on the appeal, but The Legal Intelligencer reported on September 15 that justices displayed skepticism of Coke’s case in their questioning of the company’s attorney.

“Justice Max Baer quickly voiced doubts about [the company attorney’s] position, and later during the session Justice Christine Donohue asked opposing counsel … whether he thought the legislature was within its rights to distinguish between those who have been convicted and those awaiting trial,” the news organization reported.

“Toward the end of the argument session, Chief Justice Thomas Saylor also gave [the employee’s attorney] some words of encouragement: ‘I think you can take some comfort in the court’s questions.’”

Justices Kevin Dougherty and David N. Wecht challenged the company attorney’s interpretation of the straightforward language in the state law.

“Share with me, under the basic rules of grammar, why injecting a past tense in a present tense” makes sense, Dougherty said.

“Why don’t you go to the General Assembly and ask them to rewrite the statute, which is completely unambiguous,” Wecht said.

The court has not said when it will render a verdict in the case.

August 2020 PA Jobs Update

Pennsylvania’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell for a fourth consecutive month in August 2020, dropping to 10.3%, down 2.2% over the month and falling 5.8% from its record high for the seasonally adjusted series of 16.1% in April 2020 (series began in 1976). The national rate in August 2020 stood at 8.4%. As of August 2020, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate had declined by more than half of the increase seen over March and April combined (11.4%).

This and the other changes to data noted in this update reflect the evolution of Pennsylvania’s employment situation through the coronavirus pandemic (please see the **footnote below). Over the month, unemployment rolls fell by 144,115 individuals, with total unemployment declining to 649,575. However, it should be noted that estimates for most states in the household survey (measures unemployment and employment – see *footnote below) were again affected by misclassification from respondents in August 2020 (i.e. workers who should have been classified as unemployed on temporary layoff).

As of August 2020, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate stood 5.6% higher than its level of 4.7% in February 2020, with total unemployment standing 340,547 above its total of 309,028 individuals in February 2020. For context, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate had declined 0.7% over both of Governor Wolf’s terms as of February 2020, with total unemployment down by 35,408. State unemployment statistics for the month are as follows:

As indicated above, total unemployment’s rounded percentage of the labor force, or unemployment rate, fell over the month (rate = unemployment / labor force). The labor force is the number of employed individuals combined with the number of unemployed individuals actively searching for work. Labor force growth can be a sign of a strengthening economy from more people working and/or more individuals searching for jobs. In August 2020, PA’s labor fell for a third consecutive month, dropping by 58,550 individuals, a combination of total employment* rising by 85,565 and unemployment down by 144,115 as noted above. The decrease in August lowered PA’s total labor force to 6,302,459, its lowest point since July 2006.

As of August 2020, PA’s labor force was down by 255,960 individuals (unemployment +340,547 & employment -596,507) from its record high of 6,558,419 in February 2020. For context, PA’s labor force had grown by 159,267 individuals (unemployment -35,408 & employment +194,675) over both of Governor Wolf’s terms as of February 2020. State labor force statistics for the month are as follows:

PA Non-farm* job rolls rebounded for a fourth consecutive month, albeit at a slower pace, with growth of 59,500 in August 2020, raising total non-farm employment to 5,577,900. Over the last four months, non-farm employment has grown by 584,800, recovering more than half of the loss of 1,116,500 experienced over March and April 2020 combined (bringing non-farm employment in April 2020 to 4,993,100, its lowest level on record in the seasonally adjusted series – dates back to 1990). As of August 2020, non-farm job rolls were down by 531,700 from a record high of 6,109,600 in February 2020 (please see the attached spreadsheet for comparison to other states for change in non-farm employment from Feb. 2020 – Aug. 2020). For context, non-farm employment had grown by 295,700 over both of Governor Wolf’s terms as of February 2020. State non-farm employment statistics for the month are as follows:

*Total employment for labor force provided by U.S. Census Household survey. The separate BLS Establishment survey measures non-farm jobs only.
**Survey periods for data are as of the middle of the month, meaning changes occurring beyond this time are not captured for the month.
9/18/2020

COVID-19 Job Impact by State

(Ranked by % change in non-farm, seasonally adjusted employment from February 2020 to August 2020; figures in thousands.)

Unemployed Urged to Claim Additional Benefits Now with Federal Funding Running Out

Alcohol Service Hours Extended, Capacity Expanded for PA Restaurants

Pennsylvania Unemployment System Update Progressing Despite Pandemic-Related Challenges

PA Court Considers Workers’ Comp Case Involving Formerly Incarcerated Employee

August 2020 PA Jobs Update

COVID-19 Job Impact by State