Katherine Webster  |  February 4, 2021

Category: Covid-19

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Man holds an unemployment claim form - Oregon unemployment

 

A proposed settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit that claimed people seeking Oregon unemployment benefits during the coronavirus pandemic faced long delays in receiving their payments.

The proposed settlement would benefit two Classes of individuals:

  • A main Class of all individuals who have been either partially or completely unemployed between March 1, 2020, and the settlement agreement’s effective date; have applied for or tried to apply for unemployment benefits through the Oregon Employment Department (OED); and have been waiting more than four weeks since applying without receiving a payment or a denial for at least a week of benefits other than the “initial waiting week”
  • A Subclass of those in the main Class who have applied for or tried to apply for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits.

Under the terms of the proposed settlement, OED must be in “substantial compliance” with federal first-payment timeliness requirements by March 1, 2021, and with the federal non-monetary adjudication timeliness by April 1, 2021.

The OED will be required to complete the initial processing of 80 percent of initial unemployment insurance benefit claims, as well as 80 percent of PUA claims filed on or before Dec. 26, 2020, within 21 days of the claim’s filing, the proposed settlement states.

A person holds an empty wallet open - Oregon unemployment

Eighty percent of PUA claims filed after Dec. 27, 2020, must be processed by March 31, 2021.

There are instances in which these terms will not apply, such as on any claims delayed because the OED is waiting on external parties (excluding employers) to provide necessary information.

The OED also would be required to make its regular unemployment application available in Spanish online by May — eventually adding support for at least 10 languages — and provide outreach to people with limited English skills who have not been able to access their benefits because of the language barrier, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.

To ensure the OED is abiding by the terms of the settlement, the department would be required to submit reports to the U.S. Department of Labor, and to the Oregon Law Center within one day of their submission to the Department of Labor. This would begin with the reports for the period ending March 31, 2021.

Though the Oregon Employment Department has agreed to settle the case, it admits no liability.

Have you faced long delays while waiting for your Oregon unemployment assistance since the pandemic began? Tell us about your experience in the comment section below.

The plaintiffs are represented by Kelsey Heilman of the Oregon Law Center.

The Oregon Unemployment Class Action Lawsuit is Florentina Flores de Vega, et al. v. Oregon Employment Department, et al., Case No. 20CV23377, in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

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31 thoughts onOregon Unemployment Applicants Reach Proposed Settlement with Employment Department

  1. John kong says:

    Oed still haven’t paid me after 2years my pua backpay is 13000$ that they wont pay cos of insufficient proof of employment but if it’s not good enough why did they use the same document they denied as proof of overpayment on my part.by doing that they jus made my document valid for proof of employment right?

  2. Kelly says:

    I was told I waited too long but with the pandemic I feel it wasn’t me

  3. tami S fisher says:

    I signed up for pennyway and may of 2020 and 2019 and I’ve got all the documentations I was a good worker did odds and but my tried to get my busiground they said tha had notarized documentation of housekeeping and they just denied me 360-695-3021 I would like to be a part of this class action lawsuit please

    1. Tami Sue Fisher says:

      Still have not received any kind of money

      1. Kelly says:

        Add me please

  4. Debra says:

    I never received any PUA
    My self-employment was my main source of income but was denied because I had a W-2.. I went from March 2020 to December 2021 without any unemployment help.

  5. K. Sch says:

    I waited months to recover my benefits. This gap caused mebto be unable to get groceries, food for my pets, and basic necessities paid for

  6. Brandon Gladden says:

    I didn’t receive my pua for over a year after filing. After countless hours literally days on hold over and over again. Was told I called the wrong number once( I did not) was hung up instead of transfered twice. And was told everything is good and the person would not answer my question or listen to me at all. You could tell they just didn’t care about what they were doing
    add me to this please

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