New York City supermarkets are flooding with unemployment claims, while most of them seek to hire workers during the coronavirus blockade, not fire them.
Morton Williams, who operates 16 stores in the New York metropolitan area, received 400 claims during the pandemic’s heyday in March and April, ten times more than the year before, co-owner Steven Sloan told The Post. As of June, claims have increased to about 600, or about half of the workers on the payroll, he said.
Additionally, during that time, Sloan said Morton Williams has fired only three people when demand for groceries soared. However, in late May, more than 160 former employees were getting weekly state-approved benefits, he said.
In the past, it was rare for the New York Department of Labor to pay a claim that the supermarket disputed, and if they did, they would explain themselves, Sloan said.
That practice changed with the outbreak of the coronavirus, he said.
“In three months I have not received a single explanation as to why former employees are paid when I have disputed their claims,” Sloan told the Post. “So I don’t know what her reasoning is. I can’t discuss any of these cases if we don’t know what the rules are. “
With the federal government’s CARES Act paying $ 600 a week in addition to state unemployment checks, many supermarket workers can earn more in unemployment than they would from working in the store. That has helped spur a wave of claims applications, and the city’s supermarkets, which have boasted of a stable business since mid-March, say they are struggling to deal with the situation.
“We are seeing confusing claims from people who have not notified us that they are leaving,” said Sal Bonavita, owner of two Key Food stores in the Bronx. “We have not fired anyone, and yet we are seeing much higher volumes of unemployment claims.”
“Profits are a key reason why people are not applying for jobs at our stores right now,” he added. It usually has 16 employees, but currently has eight short employees.
The CARES Act, passed by Congress in March, also provides benefits to workers who claim they are caring for a family member with COVID-19, or to those who are the primary caregivers for a child.
Those changes, combined with federal taxpayer stimulus controls, have spurred some workers to take advantage.
Sloan said two store employees recently applied for benefits even though they are still working for Morton Williams. When confronted by a manager, “they admitted that they had filed for unemployment, explaining that they were told that if they did show up, they could get extra money,” Sloan said.
In April, Sloan added, a teller was fired for failing to charge a customer for $ 200 in groceries, and soon began receiving state checks for $ 284 per week, despite the chain contesting the claim.
An employee at a Midtown location quit his job in March after telling his boss that he was concerned about his own health safety, citing the pandemic. He began receiving weekly checks of $ 341, despite supermarket protests, Sloan said.
In fact, workers who quit or are fired from their jobs should not qualify workers for benefits, said Deanna Cohen, spokeswoman for the New York Department of Labor, adding that “if someone misrepresents their situation for benefits, they are committing fraud. ” “
“We have a rigorous application and evaluation process to eliminate fraudulent claims and ensure that only eligible New Yorkers receive benefits,” Cohen said by email. “This system has not changed during this crisis.”
In addition to the confusion, organized crime networks have been filing fraudulent claims on behalf of people who currently work, according to reports. Sloan said she has encountered the problem in a handful of cases in which she received complaints from employees who never stopped working and told her they did not file a complaint.
“There is no guidance from state governments on how premiums will be affected,” labor attorney Darren Oved of Oved & Oved LLP told The Post. “Unemployment insurance rates will almost certainly go up.”
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