Full Text of HR0226 102nd General Assembly
HR0226 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The Illinois Department of Employment Security | 3 | | (IDES) is directed by State law (20 ILCS 1005/1005-45) to help | 4 | | the prosperity of Illinois' laboring men and women; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, IDES is directed by State law (20 ILCS | 6 | | 1005/1005-100) to operate a statewide network of public | 7 | | employment offices; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, IDES has traditionally operated public employment | 9 | | offices throughout Illinois, where job-challenged Illinois | 10 | | residents can go for immediate and direct assistance; and | 11 | | WHEREAS, These IDES public-access public employment | 12 | | offices closed down "temporarily" in March 2020, due to the | 13 | | COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and, as of March 2021, have | 14 | | remained closed; and | 15 | | WHEREAS, Due to the same pandemic, the need of the people | 16 | | of Illinois for IDES advice and counsel has sharply increased; | 17 | | at calendar year 2020 year-end in December 2020, Illinois | 18 | | nonfarm payroll employers reported employing 419,100 fewer | 19 | | people than in the previous year; and | 20 | | WHEREAS, These numbers have generated a statewide |
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| 1 | | unemployment rate of 7.6% in December 2020, with more than | 2 | | 468,300 Illinois residents estimated to be unemployed and | 3 | | actively searching for work and additional tens of thousands | 4 | | of Illinois residents having dropped out of the labor force in | 5 | | despair; and | 6 | | WHEREAS, This six-figure total of Illinois individuals | 7 | | includes men and women who need help filing for unemployment | 8 | | insurance benefits, request counsel in searching for new | 9 | | employment, or require additional and further assistance for a | 10 | | wide variety of pandemic-related unemployment problems; and | 11 | | WHEREAS, Under current IDES policies, there are no | 12 | | physical locations that these people can visit to get this | 13 | | help; and | 14 | | WHEREAS, People with standardized problems are expected to | 15 | | interact with a computer robot, the "IDES assistant", on the | 16 | | IDES site, but not everyone has access to a computer and, | 17 | | furthermore, constituents state that the webpage robot puts | 18 | | people into a spiderweb and does not answer their questions; | 19 | | and | 20 | | WHEREAS, People with additional questions and requests for | 21 | | assistance are supposed to call a IDES hotline phone number, | 22 | | (800) 244-5631, but our constituents report that the hotline, |
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| 1 | | when used by Illinois residents who need help, generates a | 2 | | cold, automated response; persons who call into the hotline | 3 | | with a problem are told to deposit their names, phone numbers, | 4 | | and identifying information on a segment of electronic | 5 | | recording and to wait for a response; and | 6 | | WHEREAS, In a report broadcast on Chicago's | 7 | | WBBM-TV/Channel 2 on Monday, March 8, IDES reported that as of | 8 | | the most recent reporting period 155,765 calls from Illinois | 9 | | residents were sitting in its callback queue and they had not | 10 | | yet called back any of the names on this lengthy list; and | 11 | | WHEREAS, At the current rate of callbacks, persons who | 12 | | left their names and phone numbers in IDES' callback queue | 13 | | cannot expect to get a return call until more than one month | 14 | | has passed since depositing a request for assistance, | 15 | | including many urgent requests for immediate help; and | 16 | | WHEREAS, In an Illinois House public hearing carried by | 17 | | video technology under conditions of pandemic social | 18 | | distancing held on Thursday, March 4, senior officials of IDES | 19 | | confessed to House members that their employees have not been | 20 | | able to respond to Illinois public requests and pleas in a | 21 | | timely manner; and
| 22 | | WHEREAS, Many of the problems represented by these 155,765 |
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| 1 | | unanswered phone calls are complex problems requiring an | 2 | | Illinois resident to find and submit one or more pieces of | 3 | | information written on a legal form, one or more coded | 4 | | passwords, one or more pieces of personal secure identifying | 5 | | information (such as a Social Security number), or some | 6 | | combination of these elements; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, When problems like these are addressed over an | 8 | | audio link, more than one phone call is often required to deal | 9 | | with these requests for assistance, leading to a significant | 10 | | number of currently open IDES case files and unresolved | 11 | | issues; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, Other Illinois State agencies also do work for | 13 | | which face-to-face interactions are desirable or necessary | 14 | | and, recognizing this, have taken steps to partially reopen | 15 | | their offices under pandemic conditions of social distancing; | 16 | | examples include the Department of Driver Services within the | 17 | | Office of the Illinois Secretary of State and the Family | 18 | | Community Resource Centers operated by the Illinois Department | 19 | | of Public Aid; therefore, be it
| 20 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 21 | | HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 22 | | recognizing the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 | 23 | | coronavirus pandemic, we call upon the Illinois Department of |
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| 1 | | Employment Security to immediately reopen their public-access | 2 | | public employment offices to provide face-to-face help to | 3 | | Illinois residents who urgently need assistance; and be it | 4 | | further | 5 | | RESOLVED, That we call upon all of the other departments | 6 | | of the State of Illinois to provide IDES with advice, | 7 | | technical assistance, and guidance on how to safely reopen | 8 | | public-access office spaces under current conditions; and be | 9 | | it further | 10 | | RESOLVED, That we support the working people of Illinois, | 11 | | whether currently employed or not, including the working | 12 | | people of IDES; we recognize the stressful circumstances of | 13 | | operating a publicly accessible office in a time of pandemic; | 14 | | and be it further
| 15 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 16 | | delivered to Governor JB Pritzker and IDES Acting Director | 17 | | Kristin Richards.
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