1.2 million seek jobless aid after $600 federal check ends
By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 1.2 million laid-off Americans applied for state unemployment benefits last week, evidence that the coronavirus keeps forcing companies to slash jobs just as a critical $600 weekly federal jobless payment has expired. The government’s report did offer a smidgen of hopeful news: The number of jobless claims declined by 249,000 from the previous week, after rising for two straight weeks, and it was the lowest total since mid-March. Still, the pace remains at alarmingly high levels: It is the 20th straight week that at least 1 million people have sought jobless aid. Before the pandemic hit hard, the number of Americans seeking unemployment checks had never surpassed 700,000 in a week.

(File Photo)

(Potter Twp., Pa.) There has been a recent uptick of positive cases of the COVID-19 at the Shell Cracker Plant in Potter Twp. Shell said in a statement that there are 14 confirmed active cases among the workforce at the Potter Township construction site. Shell says in the statement that 21 workers are confirmed to have recovered from the COVID-19 and have been cleared to return to work.

Shell states that they currently have around 4,000 workers on site and continue to add workers at a measured pace with decisions made on a weekly basis of adding employees.

Shell has a testing lab on site and said as they add additional workers, the site’s testing lab is providing site leaders with a valuable tool that is helping the site to protect worker safety and manage COVID-19 challenges.  All workers newly joining or rejoining the work force undergo reorientation training that includes an onsite COVID-19 test required to gain badge access to site.  To date, the site’s testing lab has conducted more than 1,000 COVID-19 tests, with an approximate positivity rating of 1 percent.

Shell said in the statement that site safety is a priority and  they continue to follow and enforce COVID-19 guidelines as provided by the Center for Disease Control and the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Those include social distancing, mandatory masks, sanitizing stations, temperature screening, and lunchroom protocols that use tables with plexi-glass dividers with only two workers per table.

Shell states they may adapt their practices as conditions and corresponding guidelines change.

Districts go round and round on school bus reopening plans
By MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Reopening schools during the coronavirus pandemic means putting children on school buses, and districts are working on plans to limit the risk. The strategies being considered include limiting bus capacity, filling buses from the back and coming up with plans to handle children who exhibit symptoms. Planners have developed a wide array of strategies to reduce the health risks, but nobody has found a silver bullet. Many schools are surveying parents to determine how many students will need bus transportation and how many plan to drive their kids to school. Others are making decisions about bus capacity that involve a trade-off between safety and affordability.

How to participate

A livestream will be online at https://access.live/PAlabor. Those without internet access can listen by calling 1-833-380-0719, however access is limited so we ask that they be reserved for individuals who need them.

Participants can ask questions live during the town hall. To protect participants’ personal confidential information, detailed answers about individual claim questions cannot be answered during the town hall.

Pennsylvania has implemented all of the new programs under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act:

• Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) – for self-employed, gig workers, contractors and others not normally eligible for UC.
• Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) – additional 13 weeks of benefits to people who exhaust their regular UC.
• Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) – extra $600 per week for anyone receiving unemployment benefits.
  • The federal government created and funded the FPUC program. Under federal requirement, the claim week ending July 25, 2020, was the last $600 FPUC payment claimants will receive. However, anyone receiving payments for UC claim weeks April 4 through July 25 will still receive backdated FPUC payments if eligible. The federal government must approve any extension of the program.

Improving Customer Service

• 229,726 overtime hours worked by L&I UC staff since mid-March.
• 122 percent increase in UC service center staffing levels since March 15 – with 775 employees supporting UC service center operations than compared to the current total of 1,719.

• The following claimants have been helped since March 15:
  • 702,896 through email;
  • 324,361 by phone;
  • 123,308 by LiveChat; and
  • 276,385 by Virtual Assistant.

Additionally, 94 percent of the eligible claimants have been paid or are not eligible for benefits among applicants from March 15 and July 4, if they filed a continuing claim to request a payment. The remaining 6 percent are claims that the automated system couldn’t approve for various reasons and are under individual review by staff.

Important Resources and Links

• L&I Press Releases
• L&I COVID-19 Guidance and Resources
• L&I COVID-19 Media Center
• Unemployment Press Briefing for August 3, 2020 (password is Zi8NydRJ)

Recordings of prior public town halls are available here. Additional unemployment benefits information is available on L&I’s website, Facebook or Twitter.