UPDATE July 6, 2022: Georgia Department of Labor has asked to withdraw from the settlement with the Southern Poverty Law Center regarding a lawsuit stemming from delays in the payment of unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 epidemic. Georgia DOL argues that the SPLC has violated provisions of the settlement agreement.
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Georgia Department of Labor agrees to fix delays in unemployment benefits
From the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC):
“A state judge in Georgia signed off on the preliminary settlement of a lawsuit against the Georgia Department of Labor over extreme delays in the payment of unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under the settlement, the GDOL will make multiple improvements to its current system of processing unemployment claims to deal with the extreme delays that have plagued the state agency since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic led to devastating levels of unemployment in Georgia. At its peak, unemployment in Georgia rose to 12.6%, and some individuals have been waiting for appellate rulings for years.
“While GDOL claims there is no current backlog in making payments for unemployment benefits, we know there are still hundreds of thousands of people waiting for their appeals to be heard, with many having no idea when their appeals will occur,” said Jamie Rush, a senior staff attorney for the SPLC Economic Justice Project. “The changes agreed to in this settlement should allow people to get their claims and appeals processed quicker while keeping them informed about what is going on.”
The lawsuit, filed in 2021, sought to address the systemic issues at the GDOL that resulted in the massive backlog and extreme delays in determinations, payments and appellate decisions. At that time, hundreds of thousands of people were waiting for their unemployment claims to be processed or an appeal to be heard.”
GDOL Response
In response, Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler claimed that GDOL was already working on fixes to the program that would have occurred even without the lawsuit.
You can read more about the settlement terms on the SPLC
website.
