Sinister new excuse to cut off unemployment benefits?

[Hugabear]

Don't have a link, but I read somewhere that new changes in Florida's unemployment regulations state that after a certain amount of time, you must accept ANY job offered to you, failure to do so would result in unemployment benefits being dropped.

So what's wrong with this? Many of us would love to have a job offer, right? However, as many of us who've been looking for work know, there are plenty of scam offers out there, tons of bogus companies soliciting for interviews, etc. So what's to stop these scammers from monitoring the unemployment reports (or more likely, knowing Rick Scott, buying them from the state), and as soon as you reach that threshold, voila - they contact you and offer you a job. Doesn't matter that the job might be doing telemarketing for commission only, or some multi-level marketing bullshit. It's a job, that's all that counts. If you turn it down, they contact the unemployment office, and your benefits are terminated.

Am I being paranoid about this?

[Jackpine Radical]

1. You are extremely paranoid and cynical.

Unfortunately, those are the two main requirements for maintaining reality connection in the current world.

[Arctic Dave]

2. Worse, they wait you out and then offer you a job you are qualified for

at a pittance of the normal pay.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

3. I Can See It All Now

Republican groups will simply take the list of applicants for unemployment benefits and call them posing as a legitimate business (or actually have a Republican-controlled business do it), and then offer these people a job for something like one dollar per hour. If the person accepts, that business gets a great boon (free labor), and if the person refuses, the State gets to cut off unemployment benefits. They simply CAN'T LOSE on this one.

Am I cynical and paranoid? Hell yes. Am I completely off base? Not by a long shot. My cynicism and paranoia EXISTS because I've seen what Republicans have ALREADY DONE in the past. I believe that there is simply NO evil that Republicans are NOT capable of enacting. The only question in their minds (and the only thing stopping them from enacting every evil desire they have) is, "Can we get away with it?"

[pnwmom]

4. What about minimum wage laws? n/t

[DebJ]

6. They don't apply to all jobs, only some. n/t

[pnwmom]

7. They apply to the vast majority of jobs. And the ones that are excluded

are the ones in which employees get tips which are supposed to put them over the minimum wage. No one is going to be forced to work for $1 an hour or for free. We abolished slavery a while ago.

The real situation is bad enough, we don't need to exaggerate; it just takes away from our credibility and makes us look like a mirror image of the freeper site.

[ThomCat]

11. Florida is well known for it's migrant worker jobs in citrus groves

and strawberry fields. These jobs don't even have ANY pay rate per hour. You only get paid PER POUND, and it is heavy back-breaking labor.

That is exactly the type of job someone would off everyone on a list of people with expiring unemployment benefits if they wanted to pull off something like this.

Even experienced migrant workers who are skilled at maximizing the number of pounds they harvest per day rarely end up making even minimum wage. The pound rate is always deliberately set low enough to make sure of that.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

12. They're Abolishing Collective Bargaining, But You Don't Think They'll Touch Minimum Wage Laws?

Laws can be changed. Minimum wage has been on the Republicans' wish list for years. There were those who once believed that they'd NEVER be stupid enough to try to do away with unions and collective bargaining. Look around you, my friend. There is quite simply NO END to what the Republican Party WON'T do in order to enrich the already rich. And they'll get their toady lap-dogs to go along with it right down the line. What? The minimum wage KILLS JOBS??? Well, let's get rid of THAT nonsense, then!

[pnwmom]

15. They might want to but they won't succeed. Individual states have no control

over the Federal minimum wage, and repeal of that won't get past the Senate.

[Hugabear]

14. There are ways to get around that

Such as offering you a sales position that's strictly commission based, even if you have absolutely no sales experience

[pnwmom]

16. Under our legal system, no one could be forced to take a job

under those terms.

And personally, I know no one with a sales job who doesn't have at least some minimal base pay. Do you?

[Initech]

5. I really wonder how these fucking criminals keep getting away with this.

[annabanana]

9. because IOKIYAR

I have never seen such a crop of lawless lawyers...

And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you—where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws from coast to coast—man’s laws, not God’s—and if you cut them down—and you’re just the man to do it—d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?
(Act One, scene seven, Man for All Seasons)

[Armstead]

8. It would be good to know if that applies to wage jobs or contract jobs

It's lousy either way. But if it only applies to jobs where a wage is paid -- rather than speculative commissions -- it would at least mean that they can't force people into those scams.

If it does apply to those, I can certainly see the friends of Ricky Scott using it as a way to get enforced pigeons for their scams.

[pipi_k]

10. According to this article...

The OP contains some misleading information


http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/Florida_Unemployment_Reform_115048304.html



Legislation was filed Monday to purge the rolls of unemployed people not actively seeking jobs. The bill requires people receiving unemployment pay to take any job after 12 weeks if the pay is equal or higher than their weekly 275 dollar unemployment checks.


For 40 hours of work that comes out to $6.87 per hour.

Not $1.00 per hour


Of course, the article is from February of this year, so maybe something drastic has happened in the meantime I'm not aware of?

[undeterred]

13. As it stands you have to accept any job that is offered to you.

If you are accepting unemployment you can't turn down a job. But its understood that you don't apply for jobs that you aren't qualified for or that you don't want.

I don't think it means that you have to accept a job that someone contacts you about that isn't something you don't want.