Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation has outlined its plans on how it will handle unemployment insurance claims of federal employees who are furloughed in a shutdown of the federal government.
Early next week, the Division of Unemployment will launch a Web application to accept claims. Although there are roughly 262,000 Marylanders employed by the federal government, this will only apply to federal employees who work in Maryland, the department press statement says.
Maryland residents who work for the feds in other jurisdictions — D.C. or Virginia — must file claims in those jurisdictions. While DLLR will not accept claims from Marylanders who work in other jurisdictions, the division’s website will provide Marylanders with information to navigate the claims process.
In addition, the division will extend call center hours to answer Marylanders’ questions and help furloughed federal workers submit claims.
In an e-mail to employees sent Thursday, Secretary Alexander M. Sanchez said a shutdown would not affect DLLR’s day-to-day operations.
“However, the [potential] temporary unemployment of thousands of federally employed Marylanders will certainly increase our workload,” he said. “I appreciate efforts that will go above and beyond normal operations for what may be a difficult, but hopefully brief, period of time. I remain optimistic that an agreement can be worked out before a federal shutdown becomes necessary.”
