BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana is expanding unemployment eligibility to cover federal employees working without pay during the partial government shutdown.
Those 1,500 federal workers in Louisiana who are working but not getting paid, such as Transportation Security Administration employees and Coast Guard members, would normally be unable to seek unemployment. But Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Friday he directed the state's labor department to allow their applications.
They can begin the application process immediately at www.LAWorks.net.
The Democratic governor's office says Louisiana is joining Colorado, California, Vermont and Washington, D.C., in allowing unemployment benefits to be paid to all federal government workers not getting paid, including those still working.
Louisiana has about 6,000 federal workers, and 427 have applied for unemployment benefits.
All unemployment must be reimbursed when federal workers receive back wages.
Source: AP
