Yesterday,27dec2012, ABC tv news segment on Ca.State Audit of EDD/Employment Development Department and why they don't answer their phones. HELL, They,EDD, have little or no respect for blue collar workers who ,say, might likely have their HOURLY WAGES STOLEN COMMONLY IN CALIFORNIA !! (do Not move to Ca.)

We elected a divinity college Governor, Jerry "moonbeam" Brown, who now has cancer sadly,,, and a Lt. Gov. who does nothing, and a State Attorney General that should be RICO-busting all the moving N. past Watsonville gangs but isn't,,, and an Insurance Commissioner that does so little for the public that you can be hit by debris from a collision but not allowed by state law to collect from that collision!  Imagine being a AAA policy holder and having a tire come thru your windshield from a collision and you can not collect on your own collision insurance and must pay out of pocket!!

The Democrats have a 'Super Majority' in both state houses in California and a Democrat Governor, but no stated plan and  no goals and no timetable for California, unlike the Brits whose Labor and Tory parties are always talking about their Plans, Goals, Timetables on the National level!! Why do we let the Republicans just minority-party obstruct any government responsible behavior,,, and the Democrats just sit idle, without any stated National Plan, National Timetable , National Party Goals, as if the Democrats 'stood' for nothing anymore but lazy easy business as usual, when so much needs to be done in the usa from budget reform and balancing,tax reform,bringing back jobs 'we don't need' our pols told us infrastructure major rebuilding, voter strict standards so no one has to stand in line back East for 6-8 hrs, etc.!!  Watch tv and see the government of Great Britain do it sooo much better! We americans have gotten too lazy and complacent and trusting in our representatives , who are Failing their sworn oaths!! Are we citizen and taxpayers and voters going to 'stand' or sit for this Hypocracy and medacity and 'i know i said this,,, but now i am doing the opposite and this' crap ?!

My point: Calfornia is still so broken, busted, in debt, and DIW.  And the incompetent anti-purpose failing "F" EDD is a good place to see exactly how sick Ca. is now at the end of 2012. In a nutshell what is the big problem with EDD is the same as that of Sacramento: it is extremely pro-big biz and extremely anti-labor.  It is just that simple.

I called the San Jose office of the Labor Commissioner's office, "Division of Labor Standards Enforcement", and talked to one of the unhappy at high paying civil service workers, female, and asked "How long to i have to file for unpaid hourly wages?"  She told me "3 years." Thank you, and goodbye.  Then i , months later, went to the website , and see that for UNDER 40 HOURS/WK ,REGULAR PAY, IT IS 2 YEARS,,, AND FOR OVER 40 HOURS/WK OR OVERTIME IT IS 3 YEARS !!  Why did this overpaid employee give such inadequate incomplete misleading information!?  Irresponsible ,and shows how careless at their job and stated purpose these people are.

So i went to the main office in San Jose at 2450 South Bascom and the door says "EDD",,, but that is a BIG FAT LIE!!  They continue to lie inside; I asked to see the person for veterans and this black guy comes over in a suit and introduces himself as "the Veterans lead person here at the EDD." Can i have one of your business cards? "Oh, i left them at my desk,,,over there,,,it's too far,,, and we are in a Friday meeting today,,,most Fridays,,,so you can't go over there,,,no i can't give you one,,, i really have to go to this Friday meeting bye."

The receptionist continues the BIG FAT LIE with "this is the EDD" when it is a sub-contractor called Work Force or something , full of posers and liars and incompetents.  She tells me to use the phones to sign up for Unemployment Insurance Claim benefits, but the phones don't work. Then she tells me to wait for a pc,,, but they don't work.  Then she tells me "you can file your Unemployment Insurance claim up to 18 months, so no rush. You can go home and do it on your own pc." How can San Jose allow this fraud and dis-service to go on in its nothing but proud town!?

So i went home, lied to and hypocritically treated like dirt by the State of California. The last time i filed for unemployment was back in the 70s and it wasn't this bad. I was laid off of season work in Yosemite like most workers there and after filing once i was sent my small checks all Winter looking for work until being rehired in the Spring. A lot of jobs in Ca. are seasonal, not just the migrant mostly Mexican picker jobs.

Advice: File immediately!! and do not wait a week, as the first week of your claim does not count!! Such carelessness in a once rich and well cared for most state. We did a lot for the pickers with the Grape Boycott and marches,,,We use to have fine state mental hospitals. And the best public schools,in top 3 states in usa. And best of top 3 states roads. Not any more !! Enron fiasco killed Ca. Our Gov. Grey Davis and his push for "deregulation", as a 'Democrat'!!

My initial claim was denied,,,because EDD decided not to read my claim,,, and based my claim on a short job i had while looking for full time work , instead of the 5+yr job i had filed for!! How rude and officially incompetent !! I got another job and for unsafe work conditions(the bus shut down every 10 minutes on the freeway at 65mph due to poor maintenance,,,no engine,,, no power steering,,,dead,,,no warning,,,with high school passengers!!) i left and started another claim.  But EDD would delay sending my 2 week report forms and thus my 2 week checks for over 2 months,,,!?!

I had a mandatory phone interview and the CSR from EDD asked me "What are all the business aliases or DBAs /doing business as for your former employer?"
You ask me , the employee, this !?! Why not ask the employer?!  Really, EDD, do you expect every employee to know every business alias /DBA for every past employer?  Just insane, rude, illogical, too business-crime friendly and harassment !!  Then i was asked to provide the amounts of the paychecks from my last employer, hard copies of which i had sent as requested to EDD !! Later i received a letter from EDD saying they did not have my SSN/social security number and could i sent it to them. How could the State of California loose my SSN !??  The same way they lost my local bank savings account that was forwarded for 'lack of activity in 6 months',,, when i opened it with Bank of the West specifically i said as a long term,slow 'savings account' !!

So i called the Executive head of the EDD and got his executive secretary in Sacramento.  (You won't see this kind of 'on the street, common man' reality reporting in any Ca. newspaper or tv show,,,Thank goodness for the personal story honesty of blogs.)  She told me, get this!!, that "Did you know that all of your Unemployment Insurance is paid for entirely by the employers in California?! You did not contribute anything!  You did not pay for any of it! The employers pay for all of the state unemployment insurance claims."

My work counts for nothing?

My years of abusive employer tactics like writing you up for being late when you are not to keep you from moving to a better company with so many 'complaints' in your file,,,telling you to ask for your paycheck or you don't get it for days ,,,tossing compliment letters instead of filing them too,,, and scattering bird seed around your car so you find it covered in bird droppings after work, day after day.

She was very frustrated that i was not more grateful and so ignorant, with 5 yrs college, after working all my life and making my last boss an Shahs departure Iranian immigrant a multi-millionaire in less than 10 years with stagnant wages for over 3 years and declining benefits from the best medical dental optical and matching 401k to just Kaiser and dental, over 10 yrs. Even when i was a child under 16 i was mowing lawns and baby sitting for money. So from her comfy civil servant soft low-efficiency position in Sacramento she was looking down her nose at me for working in the private sector all my life and working 15 hr days sometimes for 6-7 days a week.  California is so busted broke DIW and failing it's citizenry.

Up until this last election for Obama's second term, the state legislature had a law giving companies a tax break for moving JOBS OUT OF CALIFORNIA !! Can you imagine a state legislature that hostile to its citizenry and voters !?  We voters had to change the law as Sacramento wasn't going to fix itself.
We voted in Gov.Jerry Brown's tax increase, but we are still in so much debt and Sac. historic dark shadows and closed doors, versus sunlight honest open govt , dirty campaign contributions only matter, loss of direction and weak leadership.

I called my Ca. famous female politician and told her i was unemployed and had $10k in wages stolen from my x-boss. Her staff got mad at me and yelled at me! Guess the news meant they had to return (dirty) campaign contributions, before the press found out ,,,how much they paid,,, and how much she did for them.

I had the same problem with old Mullin and Lantos, who kept loosing my signed form from his office to look into a limo company that was paying by private check and not doing any payroll taxes for Social Security. Old man Mullin said "i will send you a brochure on an employer conference you can give your boss."!!   Three times Lantos' office staff said "no, we never recieved that signed form you sent in."   Three times? This limo boss ,i know for a fact, did not even have a PUC license nor a SFO airport permit, but is now a multi-millionare, illegally, not that that seems to matter in Ca.

When you go before the State Labor Commissioner, you can bring an attorney.  And you best have one before the State Labor Commissioner because the x-boss who stole $10k in wages in one year will surely have an expensive one from Frisco !!  I got one years ago from La Raza for a "contribution", so i gave $25 at first, being unemployed and wanting to see how well the young female attorney did. I could give more later if she did well. She did all the accounting paperwork and a formal legal brief, i could not have done. She drove once from SF to San Jose for the hearing and wanted to settle immediately after proving without a doubt the guilt of the x-boss,,, no guilty verdict tho proven the limo boss had stolen overtime for 3 straight years,,, and a gag order on final ruling?!  Plus she and i were treated with much less respect than the guilty as sin , plenty of proof against limo boss,,, and coerced to settle,instead of do your job and rule guilty or not guilty by the State Labor Commissioner !!  

Be soft on abundant illegal employers, Ca., who steal wages by hiding their common criminal practices with a 'settlement with no guilty verdict and a gag order'.     Treating employees like dirt and criminals,which honest and hard working as they are, will surely not bring more employees to Ca.,other than boat people fleeing Mexico and China and the like.