Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
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.
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.
Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:
31 thoughts onOregon Unemployment Applicants Reach Proposed Settlement with Employment Department
I’ve been getting benifits from Feb 8th 2020 up until March 4th 2021 got my proof of employment approved they said I had to do nothing else but to keep claiming so that’s what I did for weeks and still did not get paid than I get a denial letter on April 2021 but before that I got a letter on Feb 2021 stating I was approved benifits and my weekly amount was 205$ but never once I gotten paid.i claimed every week didn’t miss a weeks claim for months I never gotten paid tried calling hundreds of times can never get through and when I do they tell me I got a valid ui claim so I refiled my regular ui got denied from that because they said I had a active pua claim and to restart my claim so I did that and got denied..still I kept insisting that I do qualify for pua and I should be paid.after months of trying to get them to understand or help me out I got a hold of a specialist who looked into my claim and said why haven’t they paid me and went through my files lifted all the flags and said I should be paid within a few days and that she will leave nice notes for the next specialist to follow what was written for them but nobody even looked at the note or disregarded everything on it because it said something about a VQ code from my regular ui that was on my pua and to take it off so I can be paid my benifits and that VQ code was preventing any payments made but no one at Oed even cares they jus wanted to deny me benifits kept giving me false hopes run arounds wrong information being deceiving and the contact us form the specialist made for me name daniele all of a sudden jus vanished from my activities log why would they do that? Luckily I had saved it on my email the only proof that Oed is purposely not wanting to pay me and doing everything they can not for me to be approved benifits after the fact I was getting benifits since Feb 2020 til March 2021 they kept lying to me and giving me false information and instructions to confused me into very long months of pain and suffering due to Oed approving and denying then approving and denying me over and over again til I had no choice but to finally filed an appeal it’s been over 20+ days still nothing from Oed my claims stays shows all weeks claim from March til Sept 4 2021 but not processed yet and shows I have 24 weeks of benifits unpaid before sept4 th oct6 th was last day to file or claim Backpay but got an email oct 8 th saying proof of employment approved after the fact I filed an appeal which prevents me from being paid because of the appeal of I hadn’t filed an appeal I should of been paid but they waited til after I done so to approve my document and now I have to wait through this appeal process to see if I get paid or them denying me again?
I filed my claim for PUA in mid April. The asked for documentation for self employment. I provided one of the items that was on there list of acceptable documentation, My EIN number. They said my ein number confirmation letter from the irs didnt have a date which it did but I supplied them with 2 more supporting documents and now they say its in the tax departments hands for review. Its been 6 months for me without an approval or denial
I was harassed by a female supervisor for a new company who moved into Portland in 2019.
I quit.
Then I had to save my Aunt from dying and by the time I helped her get settled in assisted living and get back home to Portland the pandemic hit and I couldn’t find a job anywhere.
Broke and nearly homeless I sold what I could to pay the rent.
Then the State of Oregon, via the news media, encouraged everyone to apply for unemployment/PUA so I followed the instructions.
Huge mistake!
Denied everything even though I have paid into Oregon unemployment since the 80’s.
Managed to find work here and there and then official laid off January 2021. I actually qualified for unemployment. January 2021.
Found another job March of 2021. Just officially laid off August 2021. Super depressed.
Filed unemployment and was told my claim from April 2020 expired April 2021.
HOW IN THE WORLD DID MY CLAIM ACTUALLY START ON APRIL 2020?
That’s like me getting denied a credit card application. Then getting accepted 10 months later but they want a 12 month credit card fee to be paid from when I was denied. Get 2 months of credit card usage but pay a year fee. That doesn’t make sense.
Now my unemployment is half of what it should be because the OED counts my claim from the start date. When it was denied.
They say the only way to change it is to change the law.
What law???
They announced on the news it’s okay to drive around with expired tags. It’s okay to not pay your rent…. What law?
Now I know why people just want to stop breathing.
I was laid off in early 2020 and applied for UI right afterwards. They paid a couple weeks then denied me saying I quit my job. I requested a hearing and won, got my benefits back for a few weeks. Then, suddenly denied again, this time they claim there is fraud on my account. Meanwhile I attempted to get PUA and was told that I don’t qualify for that because I’m eligible for a regular UI claim. Haven’t gotten a payment in about 10 months now. Checkmate. Thanks so much, Oregon.
I have waited since the start of the pandemic got my unemployment. i have only received the very first payments and that was about 5 months ago and once again i have been claiming every week and i have called a billion times and have left countless messages to contact me and still nothing!! I have lost so much and still no help!! Im beyond frustrated and dont understand why this is happening!!! please someone help!!
Im in the same boat as all of you..HERE IS A TIP TO GET THRU ON THE UNEMPLOYMENT PUA SPECIALST LINE
STEP 1 call 5033705412
This will bring you to there messaging system .
Step 2 press i think its 4 to enter in the name of who your calling..
Step 3 after soing that all you have to emter for the name is any random 3 numbers it can be 345, 654,765 any combinatoon of three number obviously not 1 or 0.
Step 4..after trial and error i did it my first time got thru to a lady i said i am sorry i miss dialed can you transfer me to a pua specialist to be put on hold..and bam thwy force you theu to be put on hold… I have done this 4 times works everytime.. I hope this helps everyone and dont worrie your money is coming at somepoint they will pay u just no matter what keep filing your weeks and back weeks you can start a claim in august 2020 and bwck date it to feb 3 i think.. Any who there ya go.
I was the primary caregiver forr a highrisk induvidual and driving ocasionaly for cash. So, while looking for work i filed for oregons ui and was denied. So then i filed pau as was the process. That was back in dec 2020. I waited and waited finallyyesterday i got thru. They told me that my pau was not valid after claiming (per their instruction every week for several months. I now qualify for ui becaus i found part time work during the pandemic and have made over $1000.
Please add me I waited over 6 months then received it in December. 2020.
I applied for pua on August 2 2020. I filed weekly and nothing progressed except letter/email acknowledging initial application and weekly certification emails.
I kept checking then in January received a email that told me to reapply using the new online system. I recently started getting my pua after 7 months now they are not acknowledging my initial claim.
My daughter applied in June 2020 and did not receive until February 2021
It took way too long
I have applied for PUA a couple of times. I didn’t think I was entitled due to the fact I worked under the table . Since covid has made me homeless . I reapplied and gave a job offer letter from an employer that was going to employ me and couldn’t due to covid March 9,2020. I still haven’t heard anything and I’ve called for hours everyday for hours a day to get a busy signal.