NEW CASTLE State moves job center employees

A state representative wants to stop the closing of the office.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- There won't be anymore face-to-face meetings for people signing up for state unemployment benefits in New Castle after this week.
State officials say they are moving all employees who process those claims to Sharon on April 30 until a new regional call-in center is opened in the next few months. Unemployment claims eventually will be taken only over the telephone from a regional call center.
People still will be able to fill out forms and talk to unemployment office employees via the telephone in the New Castle office until the regional call centers are ready.
"We are trying to bring in more re-employment services and more training to the community," said Margaret Fallica, regional director for Bureau of Employer and Career Services with the state Department of Labor and Industry in Pittsburgh.
"Getting unemployment is a process you do one time. You call to become eligible. To get re-employed, you need more interactive services, working with people, learning how to use the computers and finding a job," she said.
Reason for move: The move from New Castle to Sharon was done because the Lawrence County Job Center needed more space for programs involving job seekers.
Fallica said there will be remodeling done in the Margaret Street offices over the next 10 days to create more conference room space and classroom training space.
The changes are part of a statewide initiative to streamline services for job seekers and make unemployment claims a call-in process, said John Currie, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.
Currie said the state has been converting to a call-in system over the last two years with Western Pennsylvania being the last region to have it implemented.
Other centers: Call centers will be opened in Indiana, Pa., and Duquesne, Pa., in the next three to four months, he said. Statewide, there will be six unemployment claim call centers, Currie said.
People working in county unemployment offices will be offered jobs at those centers or other state offices.
The changes will mean a savings of about $3 million to $4 million a year for the Department of Labor and Industry when processing unemployment claims, he said.
"A second reason is because it gives you better services. In about 94 [percent] to 96 percent of the time you will probably get through quickly. Before, when you went to a job center, you would have to drive there, find a parking space, wait in line. It's a better service and it saves money," he said.
Opposes idea: But not everyone's happy with the idea.
State Rep. Frank LaGrotta of Ellwood City, D-10th sent a letter to Gov. Tom Ridge opposing the changes -- saying he was only alerted to the changes by people working in the New Castle office.
"I am calling on you to put off this closing until its effect can be properly discussed and the welfare of the workers impacted by the decision can be appropriately considered," LaGrotta wrote.
LaGrotta characterized moving the services to Sharon and the eventual implementation of call centers as the Ridge administration "thumbing its nose at Lawrence County and working families all over Pennsylvania."
"I've been unemployed in the past and needed unemployment benefits, as has my father, my cousins and many of the people I grew up with," LaGrotta said. "It's a tough time in a person's life -- a time when a person needs help with benefits, job searches and a time when a person needs to talk to and work with someone face-to-face."