SALEM, Ore. — The director of the Oregon Employment Department announced Wednesday that the agency will slash its phone hours until staff can catch up on backlogged unemployment claims. The agency has attributed the backup to staffing shortages and a drop-off in pandemic-era funding, problems that have not mitigated by the launch of a new computer system in March.
Usually, OED phone lines are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Several people have told KGW that they have called the agency right at opening and found the line already busy. The line typically remains busy throughout the day, or callers report being put on hold for hours — sometimes ending with the call being summarily dropped.
Starting Tuesday, June 4, the agency's phone hours will be reduced to run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. And beginning the day prior, phones will be closed entirely on Mondays so staff can focus on processing claims and troubleshooting issues.
The Monday closures are a temporary measure, according to the agency. But the truncated hours are "permanent."
The agency currently has about 13,500 "claim issues" that are six weeks old or older, Director David Gerstenfeld said, which refers to the number of issues rather than the number of claims — some claims have multiple reported issues.
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His target is to cut that number by 80%, down to about 2,700 issues or less, before revisiting those phone hours.
Reduced phone hours will apply equally to Unemployment Insurance, Paid Leave Oregon and OED's Contributions & Recovery. Staff will still answer calls on hold until about 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, the agency said.
“We understand this change will make it more difficult for customers to reach us by phone in the short term,” Gerstenfeld said. “But it will help us quickly address the most pressing issues for the customers who have been waiting the longest. Once those have been addressed, staff will be able to process incoming work faster, issue benefit payments more quickly, and provide our customers much better levels of service and support.”
Sunday marked 10 weeks since OED transitioned to Frances Online, the system that was supposed to be a vast improvement over the agency's archaic database in place through the pandemic. The agency said it has distributed more than $140 million in benefits since the switch, and claim volume has stabilized near 30,000 per week over the past two months.
Paid Leave Oregon, a relatively new addition to the OED portfolio, launched using the Frances Online system nine months ago and has paid out more than $417 million to 55,000 people in that time. It was similarly dogged with issues at launch.
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“Both programs have made significant strides, and we are issuing benefit payments to most customers in a timely manner, but we know that we must do more,” said Gerstenfeld. “Simply stated, we need to get fully caught up on our work to provide the level of customer service Oregonians deserve and require.”
In June, OED will begin seeing the benefits of a bill passed by the Oregon Legislature to fund 70 new staff members. Gerstenfeld said his agency has already begun a hiring push to fill those new roles.
“While we can’t make up for the loss of two-thirds of our Unemployment Insurance workforce," Gerstenfeld said, referring to the post-pandemic loss of additional federal funding, "we can take steps to make a very real difference. We must act boldly now to make significant progress and re-establish sustainable, high-quality customer service levels.”
The agency said that it is also working on improvements to the Frances Online system to make it easier for claimants to use.