Don’t expand unemployment benefits

Star News

Editorials

A proposal by a group of Republican legislators to expand unemployment compensation eligibility to those who quit their jobs over COVID-19 vaccination mandates is an overreach undermining the rights of employers to protect their workplaces in the manner they see fit.

Employers have an absolute right to set rules for their workplaces that they feel are best for the health and well-being of their business. This can range from requiring workers to wear proper safety gear to following workplace rules.

Workers have the ability to vote with their feet and can either choose to follow the rules and stay employed or find another place of employment.

In 1932 Wisconsin was the first state to enact unemployment compensation benefits for its citizens recognizing the need for this important safety net for those who lose employment through no fault of their own. Unemployment compensation is intended to help individuals and families to survive temporary job losses.

What the system was never intended to do was to reward people who choose not to work and who walk away from their jobs.

“Quitting a job should never lead to eligibility for unemployment,” said Matt Cordio, founder of Startup Wisconsin, in a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article. Cordio, who is eying a lieutenant governor run, is correct in bucking his fellow Republicans’ attempts to expand unemployment benefits. “As a conservative small business owner I oppose the Republican proposal to expand an entitlement program in the midst of a workforce shortage,” he said.

Not only would it further burden the unemployment system, raising costs for all businesses in the process, but it sets a precedent for those who would sooner collect a handout rather than work. What is next, workers wanting to wear flip-flops on the factory floor in place of steel-toed shoes or welders claiming that protective masks cramp their style?

Whether or not people agree with vaccine mandates, employers have the right to require them, just as they have the right to require employees test negative for tuberculosis and mandate routine screening for illegal recreational drug use. The responsibility of the business owner is to their business. Absent some overwhelming public safety emergency, the state government should back off and let business owners take the steps they feel are necessary to protect the economic and physical health of their business, employees and customers.

Reps. Dan Knodl, Rick Gundrum, Rob Brooks and Sen. Duey Stroebel are seeking to make political hay hoping that anti-vaxxers will jump on board their bandwagon. They must use care that in their push to give Gov. Tony Evers yet another ill-conceived piece of legislation to veto, they do not alienate the traditional probusiness roots of the Republican party. Don’t expand handouts to those making excuses for not going to work.