A deputy secretary with the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet, the cabinet that handles unemployment insurance claims, says employees receiving unemployment benefits because of temporary layoffs related to the coronavirus pandemic will have to return to work when their employer says so as businesses reopen.
If an employee refuses to come into work while still collecting unemployment benefits, that employee could be investigated for unemployment insurance fraud, Deputy Secretary Josh Benton said in a Wednesday webinar hosted by chambers of commerce throughout west Kentucky. Few exceptions to that are provided under the C.A.R.E.S. Act.
Among the primary exceptions, an employee may refuse to come to work while still collecting unemployment insurance claims if they have childcare needs, or if an employee is classified as “at-risk” for COVID-19 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But an employee needs to be classified as such by a doctor and ordered to quarantine because of that classification, Benton said.
“But generally, if an employer calls someone back, they need to return to work,” Benton said. “Someone just can't say, ‘I don't feel safe because of my health,’ or, ‘I'm at risk,’ and self-certify that. It has to be doctor ordered. We're not going to restart their benefit payments until we're able to verify that a doctor has actually ordered that they have to self-quarantine because of health concerns that are preventing them from returning to work.”
Fear of contracting COVID-19 is not an exception, Benton said. A cabinet spokesperson did not respond to a question sent following the webinar regarding whether an employee who refuses to come to work out of fear their employer isn’t doing enough to protect their safety, while still collecting unemployment benefits, would constitute an unemployment fraud investigation by the state.
Benton said employers could report employees who refuse to come in to work while still collecting unemployment benefits through an online form provided through the Kentucky Career Center.
The Courier-Journal reported earlier this month that throughout the state, some businesses were turning away customers who refused to wear masks in their stores, while other businesses allowed customers to not wear masks, with some elected officials worried about the safety of employees.
The state reported earlier this week an unemployment rate of 15.4% for April, an increase of more than 10% from March. Benton said state officials expect even more people are unemployed than the number reflects due to people who were self-employed and weren’t insured for unemployment benefits.
He said the number of new unemployment claims keeps declining, but the overall number of Kentuckians unemployed remains at historic levels.
“For most of us, this is the highest rate we’ve ever seen. And we’re obviously hopeful that this is a short-lived situation,” Benton said.
