They will begin investigating private sector employees who do not report to work

Private sector employees who lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and whose employers have called back, will have to return to work – unless they have a valid reason for not doing so – as they run the risk of being suspended from unemployment benefits and charged for the money they received.

This was announced by the secretaries of the Department of Labor and Human Resources (DTRH), Carlos Rivera Santiago, and of Economic Development and Trade (DDEC), Manuel Cidre. They both said they have received complaints from employers in various sectors, Such as fast food chains, service companies, pharmaceuticals and medical device companies, among others, that they don’t get the human resource they need to be able to operate.

Rivera Santiago has indicated that unemployment benefits are federal and should be audited, so he announced the start of the Return to Work program, which is being demanded of all states and territories.

He explained that it is an agile and effective mechanism for the employer to report the name and details of employees who have not been reported to work. The head of Labor has said he has no figures on how many employees could return to work in the coming weeks, nor how many have already been notified to report on their work.

The skipper will have to access the DTRH portal and request an investigation from those employees who have not returned to work. You will need to provide the employee’s information, the date you were notified to return, and since when it has not been reported to your site.

The secretary indicated that to these workers they will be suspended from unemployment pay as a precaution in what is being investigated, even the employee may have to return the federal money he received after being notified that he was returning and did not. In addition, these employees are exposed to disqualification from the benefits program for misusing these federal aids.

For his part, Cidre warned that the unemployment benefits for the pandemic – known as PUA for its acronym in English – as well as other federal aid that was created following the emergence of VOCID-19, including payroll protection loans (PPPs) expire this year. “These benefits have an expiration date and end in September 2021 at the latest. And if the vaccination process moves as it has so far, they can end sooner.”

However, the SDEC holder acknowledged that an employee who receives a salary of $ 7.25 per hour, receives more money by staying at home and receiving PUA grants and other benefits. He has estimated that the weekly wage from which he earns the minimum wage is $ 287 – if he works the 40-hour day – while at home without working he could receive up to $ 540, due to all the federal aid available for this emergency. of COVID-19.

“One goal of this secretariat is to raise the workforce,” Cidre said, noting that alongside Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González, they will knock on the doors of the federal capital for justice to be done in Puerto Rico with the “Welfare to work” program, so that no employee receiving social assistance is penalized for working, as is the case now.

He has indicated that officials in Washington DC are talking about raising the federal minimum wage to between $ 8.75 and $ 9.25 an hour. “Still at $ 9.25 is not a fair salary“He said, while urging the private sector to pay more to its workers, and not expect the government to mandate it. “The private sector must commit to raising wages,” the DDEC secretary added.