California’s Employment Development Department is in the hot seat again.
EDD halted new unemployment filings for two weeks last month in order to revamp its application system.
But there’s still a backlog of over 1 million jobless Californians waiting for benefits. Democratic Assemblyman David Chiu says navigating the system is especially hard for immigrant communities.
“Individuals who don’t speak English at home face insurmountable barriers. Your agency is at risk of violating our state language access law," Chiu said. "And from what I can tell, there hasn’t been any progress in addressing the needs of individuals for whom English is not their first language.”
Department Director Sharon Hilliard says improving language access is an essential goal for EDD, but acknowledges it’s not a “quick fix."