The Z Spot

In these tough times, even I have to acknowledge that publicly funded welfare services are important. But we also need to be honest and look at some of the obvious abuses in the system.

For example, people are required to show that they are actively seeking employment. People I know who interview a lot are saying people have started showing up for interviews in jeans and t-shirts. Do these people really want the job, or are they just showing up to say that they are actively seeking work?

My other example is perhaps unique to both Nevada and the unionized service industry, but maybe not. A lot of people in Las Vegas were not technically laid off, but went either to “Lay off on call” status, or were already part time, but getting full time hours and now get part time, if any, hours.

These people are allowed to collect unemployment, even though they are still technically employed, and are in fact working. The deal is that they have to turn in a form listing all of the days that they worked, and that is simply deducted from their unemployment benefit.

The problem is that these people who are “on call” are not taking shifts that are offered to them. Those shifts don’t get deducted from their unemployment. So, while there are people who are actually unemployed, struggling and looking to find work, there are Union employees sitting at home deciding when they do and don’t want to come in. And collecting unemployment.

Since unemployment is supposed to be for individuals who are “involuntarily” unemployed, why are we paying it to people who choose not to work? Instead of asking employees when they worked, they should ask employers when the employee was offered work. All of those hours should come off of their unemployment.

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