Unemployment office staffer shows signs of COVID, causing appointment cancellations
An employee at the office of unemployment in Frankfort has developed symptoms of COVID-19, causing a group of people who traveled to Frankfort to have their unemployment claims resolved to be turned away at the door.
Approximately seven employees were isolated and asked to work from home while they wait for test results to come back, causing a backlog in appointments for people desperate for in-person help on their unemployment claims.
“To protect everyone’s safety, several people who had appointments today for in-person services now will have their appointments conducted by phone at the originally scheduled date and time,” said Majorie Arnold, the chief of staff for the Labor Cabinet. “While this is an inconvenience, this step keeps everyone involved safe while allowing appointments to be conducted as promised.”
Michael Frazier, who was in Frankfort to help a family member with their unemployment claim, said there was no clear communication to about 40 or 50 people waiting outside the office building. He had an 8:45 appointment and wasn’t informed the appointment wouldn’t be kept until 11 a.m.
“If they came out and said that, I’m sure everyone would have been fine,” Frazier said. “The way they dealt with it was absolutely atrocious.”
He said he received a phone call, but it only rang once and he wasn’t able to catch it in time. He received another phone call around 2:30 saying the unemployment office had resolved his family member’s claim.
Frazier said people traveled from all over the state to get in-person help and that it was one man’s second time being turned away. One woman said she had used the last of her money to get to Frankfort because she hadn’t been paid for six weeks, Frazier said.
“It was total disarray, just a mess,” Frazier said.
Gov. Andy Beshear had the state open up appointments for in-person assistance on their unemployment claims in June, after hundreds of people descended upon Frankfort to get help with their claims. According to the Labor Cabinet, at least 1,080,421 unemployment claims have been filed since the pandemic began.
The state has had a difficult time dealing with the high volume of cases, especially after the federal government expanded who was able to collect unemployment insurance. As of Thursday, the state still hadn’t processed 6,625 claims from March and 22,090 from April.
Beshear’s administration entered a contract with Ernst and Young in order to help process the outstanding claims. The multi-million dollar contract was recently extended for another five weeks and will be paid for by money from the federal government.
