State employees say LePage pressured them to deny jobless benefits
Last edited Thu Apr 11, 2013, 05:46 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: BDN
At a meeting last month, Gov. Paul LePage pressured hearing officers at the Department of Labor to decide unemployment-benefit cases in favor of business owners over workers, sources to the Sun Journal have said.
LePage summoned more than a dozen employees at the state agency to a luncheon on March 21 that lasted more than an hour and a half, sources said, to discuss the unemployment hearing process.
Their presence was required, according to an early March email, and attendance was taken at the Blaine House. LePage arrived late from an earlier meeting and then left for his annual vacation in Jamaica.
Also attending the luncheon were political appointees, including the department’s commissioner, Jeanne Paquette, and Jennifer Duddy, chairwoman of the Unemployment Insurance Commission.
Read more: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/11/politics/state-employees-say-lepage-pressured-them-to-deny-jobless-benefits/
AHO's salaries are federally funded, and must follow federal guidelines for unemployment - these are questionable tactics being used by our governor, and quite possibly illegal. If it is, I fucking hope this is grounds for impeachment since we do not have a recall process here.
Edit to add:
Undue political pressure violates process, expert on labor law says:
http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/11/politics/undue-political-pressure-violates-process-expert-on-labor-law-says/
(snip)
It’s a serious violation of federal standards to politicize the process, McHugh said, and “to expect individual hearing examiners to stand up against that kind of direct pressure is really providing an unfair advantage to the employers.”
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could this be it for LePage? I'm not dancing yet, but there is a tiny glimmer of hope here....
= new reply since forum marked as read
