Yudichak questions L&I secretary on shutdown process

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania State Senator John Yudichak, I-Swoyersville, participated in Tuesday’s State Senate Labor and Industry Committee and Senate Communications & Technology Committee hearing and had the chance to address state Labor and Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak directly with his concerns regarding the issue of unemployment compensation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yudichak pressed Oleksiak on a number of issues concerning the pandemic and the state’s response to it, including Gov. Tom Wolf’s emergency declaration that shut down businesses statewide.

In particular, Yudichak wanted to know whether or not professionals from within the Department of Labor and Industry were included in discussions surrounding Wolf’s order.

“A fundamental question that the administration has failed to answer is why the experienced professionals at the Department of Labor and Industry were not fully consulted on the governor’s executive order that shut down businesses across Pennsylvania, forcing 1.8 million Pennsylvanians out of work and overwhelming the unemployment compensation system,” Yudichak said.

Oleksiak replied to Yudichak by saying that input was received from the department by the governor’s office, and that he would get Yudichak any information he required on the subject.

“The Workforce Development Board, under the direction of the Department of Labor & Industry, has talented leaders from organized labor organizations and private sector industries who would have been a great resource to the Administration. They could have used the Board’s expert advice on how to safely operate businesses and mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus without decimating the Pennsylvania economy,” Yudichak said.

“The lack of a collaborative and transparent process in designing the Governor’s executive order to shut down businesses has resulted in millions of Pennsylvania families struggling with a public health crisis while they deal with the tangible human costs of a personal economic crisis,” he added.