Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says that people who refuse an offer from their employer to return to work are no longer eligible to receive federal unemployment benefits.
Mnuchin said that companies receiving benefits under the Payroll Protection Program who are inviting employees who had been laid off or furloughed due to the coronavirus crisis to return to work should plan to notify state unemployment offices of their offers.
If the employee, in turn, turns down the job, they would then be considered ineligible to receive expanded unemployment benefits.
“If you offer a person a job..and that person does not take the job..then that person would not be allowed to get unemployment,” Mnuchin said Tuesday.
There are reports from across the country about small business reopening that are having trouble bringing their workers back because the CARES Act adds an additional $600 on top of the state’s unemployment check.In some states, those unemployment payments top $1,000 a week.So some of these workers make more money staying on unemployment.
CBS5 in Phoenix reported on a restaurant owner who has more than 30 openings.
Paullette Cano, owner of Phoenix’s Times Square Italian Restaurant says “with an unemployment rate at almost 20%, you'd think we'd have a lot of applicants coming in, but we're not. They don't want to come back to work. It's the unemployment. They're receiving about $840 a week, which puts them about $22 an hour."
Times Square has more than 30 openings and they are running short-staffed. Further complicated the issue is that if Cano cannot rehire the same amount of staff she once had, her loan from the Paycheck Protection Program will not be forgiven. She says “you want to hire, and they're just not coming into the door.”