The company’s CEO predicted that revenue from its government services division, which issues unemployment, food stamp and other government benefit cards, will partially offset the losses in other sectors caused by COVID-19.
“I’m very frustrated because I’m beginning to feel that I am being tricked,” said one Owasso woman who has filed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance funds. “It has been almost 2 months with no payment.”
“Obviously, if somebody turns down employment, then what will happen is, if the company chooses to call OESC (the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission) and let them know, then that individual’s unemployment benefits will stop,” Secretary of Commerce and Workforce Development Sean Kouplen said.
Oklahoma could ask the federal government to stop giving unemployed workers here the $600 a month unemployment stimulus, or halt benefits altogether for workers who don’t go back to work when the economy opens up.
The ordinance infringes on the residents’ First Amendment right to assembly, the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection and due process clauses, the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, as well as state laws and constitutional protections, the lawsuit alleges.
Though a video of Tuesday’s meeting was initially posted on the Oklahoma Water Resources Board’s Facebook page, the video was later removed from the agency’s page.
Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce and Workforce Development Sean Kouplen said there is currently a “healthy tug-of-war” in Gov. Kevin Stitt’s administration between businesspeople, who want the state to reopen immediately, and the health experts who say to wait.
“The numbers are so stunning, there’s nothing to compare it with historically. I just wouldn’t feel safe to characterize it as this is high as it’s going to go,” said Lynn Gray, economic research and analysis director for OESC.
