LePage denies unemployment hearing pressure
A spokesman for Gov. Paul LePage is denying the accuracy of a Sun Journal story, which reported multiple sources saying the governor pressured unemployment hearing officers to decide cases in favor of employers.
MPBN reported LePage spokesman Peter Steele said the Sun Journal story is not accurate and denies that the governor intimidated hearing officers. Steele told MPBN that the governor was informing hearing officers that there were complaints from employers who said they felt the unemployment appeals system was weighted against them.
The Sun Journal followed up on the story Friday, speaking to more sources within the labor department who said LePage's comments did not involve pressure to rule unemployment hearings in favor of employers but rather to fix perceived errors in the system. To the Lewiston paper, Steele called the allegations "outrageous."
Jennifer Duddy, the chairwoman of the Unemployment Insurance Commission appointed by LePage, told the paper that the governor emphasized during the March 21 meeting that he was not lobbying for any one side but urging that the laws were being followed.
A lawyer for the Maine State Employees Union, however, told the paper that multiple hearings officers within the state's Department of Labor corroborated the paper's story published Thursday detailing allegations that the governor pressured those hearings officers to rule more in favor of employers.
That story granted sources anonymity for fear of retaliation from their employer. The sources said that pressure from the governor to decide more unemployment cases in favor of employers began over a year ago. The paper reported the hearing officers, who are lawyers, were asked to report all decisions favoring employees to supervisors before issuing formal rulings.
The sources told the paper that practice has since ended.
MPBN reported that the LePage was planning to propose some rule changes in the unemployment hearing process, but has not done so. It also reported some Democrats have begun questioning whether the incident should be reviewed by the Attorney General's Office.
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