Need a professional locksmith? Click q for truly professional services!

ARCHIVE PAGE

Stay Alert. q Mannatech CLICK HERE, get a Yahoo map to pinpoint any address, THEN COME BACK

JULY 1998

Sunny Job Service agency helps

both employees and employers

 

SUNNYSIDE (7-22-98)--If you're not a frequent user of Washington State Job Service Center services, chances are you know little about the goings on inside the agency.

 

A little digging reveals it's a busy bunch. Among many things the Center does is:

• Get employers together with suitable employees
• Provide vital info to employers about the way ES works and

  what it can do for the employer.

• Keep employers abreast of tax law information
• Provide employers with information about claimants

 

One of the least well known facts is the Sunnyside center listens

closely to an an advisory board, called the Job Service Employer

Committee--or "jaysec". The group is made up largely of Lower

Valley employers.

 

How are members seated? Dawna Downey, of Milne Fruit Products,

Prosser, who sits on the committee, said "We're seated from our

involvement with the Job Service. I think it was both voluntary and

being asked," she said.

 

Barbara Miller, Mercer Ranches, who is committee chair, said

members are "volunteers, or those interested."

 

"Lately we've dwindled to a small group meeting quarterly. And

we're not likely to meet this summer when everyone's busy. But

we'll probably have another meeting in September," Miller said.

 

Both women indicated that any employer is welcome to sit on the

board, come to the meetings, and attend ES seminars.

 

Mark Mochel, the Yakima ES manager, told YVN that each "jaysec"

committee establishes its own ground rules and priorities.

 

"That's because because each Job Service Center has different

needs, dictated by community need or by members of the

community," Mochel said.

 

He said the committees concentrate on workshops they feel they need. At certain times of year, committees also may become involved in legislation or rules ES is developing around its service delivery. Or in "high-level" initiatives ES is attempting to establish.

 

Committee members also attend annual regional conferences and talk with their counterparts in other states.

 

Job Services provides a variety of other employer aids as well.

 

Employers use ES screening services when they hire new staff.

Only potential employees suitable for a particular employer are

referred. Job candidates are interviewed to determine background, skills, education, and experience. The agency, however, does not screen for illegal alien workers.

If ES falls down on the job, the employer committee can tell Job

Service Administrator Pete Saenz about it, and he can take

corrective action with his troops.

 

When ES pays unemployment compensation to a former worker, the

money comes out of an account the employer has paid into. Job

Services notifies employers when former employees are drawing on

those accounts.

 

"ES sends out a list of individuals who are drawing unemployment,

drawing against you as an employer," Barb Miller explained. "If

you can identify someone who left for nonqualifying reasons, is

receiving an L&I claim, or plain quit, we can tell ES. Then we can

get relief from paying that individual out of our account," Miller

said.

 

If employers want to be involved in claims, ES holds mock hearings

where employers can ask questions and take part.

 

If any employer wants to get the most out of what JSEC (can offer), they should know it can be customized to what our needs

are, our businesses," Miller said.

 

In JSEC meetings, employers discuss ES services, issues of

concern to employers, and tax rates on employer premium rates.

 

"Most (employers) don't have any idea of how our ES rates are

calculated," Miller said. JSEC meetings could help them learn.

 

One thing the employer committee does not do is hear complaints of

the unemployed person standing forlornly in the foyer. That guy or

gal hears a lot of staff talking to others--often in Spanish--but has

no clue about what they're doing while he's waiting.

 

Unemployed, he's under stress to begin with. And hearing so many

staff--many of whom are seemingly ignoring him--might make him

turn "postal." Suffice it to say, however, staff are probably

conducting interviews. That's a chatty business. Staff are busy.

 

They will get to him. But he'll have to wait a bit.

 

"As far as the claimant end, it's not our area," said JSEC Chair

Miller. "It's the flip side" of what interests employers on the JSEC.

 

With an eye toward helping the (computer literate) Sunnyside job

seeker, YVN called Olympia and got hold of ES' job kiosk website

address.

 

We made it a permanent button on Page 1 and on Page 37.

It may be clicked with the best wishes of our vast newspaper staff.

 

Click q to see the roster of JSEC members and Job Service staffers

at the Sunnyside Job Service Center. They're busy people, and want

to help you.