One relatively new industry is booming, even in this economy. Talx helps Fortune 500 companies fight unemployment claims.
Talx, which emerged from obscurity over the last eight years, says it handles more than 30 percent of the nation’s requests for jobless benefits. Pledging to save employers money in part by contesting claims, Talx helps them decide which applications to resist and how to mount effective appeals.
The work has made Talx a boom business in a bust economy, but critics say the company has undermined a crucial safety net. Officials in a number of states have called Talx a chronic source of error and delay. Advocates for the unemployed say the company seeks to keep jobless workers from collecting benefits.
That's the point, of course. The fewer claims a company is paying, the lower their unemployment tax is. The goal is to make the process of fighting for unemployment onerous enough that the person gives up, thereby saving the company money. The Fortune 500 company. Companies like Wal-Mart:
Advocates for the unemployed cite cases like that of Gerald Grenier, 47, who spent four years as a night janitor at a New Hampshire Wal-Mart and was fired for pocketing several dollars in coins from a vending machine. Mr. Grenier, who is mentally disabled, told Wal-Mart he forgot to turn in the change. Talx, representing Wal-Mart, accused him of misconduct and fought his unemployment claim.
After Mr. Grenier waited three months for a hearing, Wal-Mart did not appear. A Talx agent joined by phone, then seemingly hung up as Mr. Grenier testified. The hearing officer redialed and left an unanswered message on the agent’s voice mail. The officer called Mr. Grenier “completely credible” and granted him benefits.
Talx appealed, claiming that the officer had denied the agent’s request to let Wal-Mart testify by phone. (A recording of the hearing contains no such request.) Mr. Grenier won the appeal, but by then he had lost his apartment and moved in with his sister.
During times of economic peril, there are always those who profit from the misery of others.
cross posted at Main St./workingamerica.org blog
1 comment:
Unbelievable. I have a friend in RI who was impacted by the flooding and couldn't get to work. She's a highly paid skilled nurse and is now concerned she will not get unemployment for the week her road and all exits from it were blocked and she was unable to get to her job. Although RI promised it would pay employees in these circumstances back pay, she's yet to see sign of it.
It's hard to imagine Walmart ever requiring a reason to "short" one of their employees but they do find ways. It's like the health "care" system - all profit and when that is the motive, morals, ethics, empathy and reasoning, fall by the wayside.
Speaking of "heath", have you seen that Google will be blocking ALL overseas drug company online ads? Hmmmm, let me guess who they are BIG friends with?
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