Hundreds of school bus drivers and head start workers are protesting demands by the Department of Workforce Development to payback benefits they were never eligible to receive.
The workers received hundreds of thousands of dollars in employee benefits, however in 2011 bus drivers and teachers were disqualified from receiving unemployment when they had a reasonable of expectation of going to back to work when school was in session.
Department of Workforce Development spokesman Joe Franks says the agency notified the workers on numerous occasions about their status and many signed off saying they understood the policy when they filed for unemployment.
However Carli Stevenson of AFSCME says DWD should have never paid out the benefits and now it is penalizing the workers for the agency’s error.
You can hear the Leon-Tailored Audio from the two sides above.
Photo: WIBC-FM
