Kansas labor department plans to more than double unemployment call center staff
Unemployed Kansans and victims of fraud have complained for months of jammed phone lines at the Department of Labor (KDOL). Now the agency is more than doubling the size of its call center.
The state is hiring more than 500 new customer service reps and “surge staff,” Gov. Laura Kelly announced at a news conference Wednesday.
Seventy-seven of those hires will be able to help in the call center by early next week, KDOL said in a statement. The rest should be trained and ready by late March or early April.
In addition, starting this weekend the department is expanding its hours, taking calls between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Sundays. The call center will remain open until 9 p.m. on weekdays.
“While increasing call center representatives seems like a slam dunk, a simple answer to the high volumes we’re experiencing each of the steps requires significant planning and structural support to make it work,” Kelly said.
Kelly urged Kansans to refrain from using auto-dialers when trying to reach the department.
The move is a substantial addition to the agency’s customer service team, which currently consists of about 450 representatives. Another 500 new staff would bring the customer service workforce to nearly 1,000. It wasn’t immediately clear how the state planned to pay for the new employees.
Interim labor secretary Amber Shultz previously said that in order to address the more than 250,000 calls a day, the agency would need about 1,500 employees answering the phones. Officials have said that isn’t realistic because of budget constraints.
Frustrated Kansans have complained for nearly a year that they are unable to reach the labor department by phone — some for months on end. Some unemployed workers say the new login system, meant to prevent fraud, isn’t working properly and won’t allow them to file claims for federal unemployment benefits the agency is already paying out.
KDOL is on its fourth secretary in a year following accidental overdrafts of Kansans’ accounts, record unemployment claims and estimates of fraudulent payments between $290 million and $600 million.
Kelly has said her ability to respond was hampered by historic under-funding of KDOL by the Brownback administration and a 1970s era IT system.
Full modernization of the IT system, officials say, could take three or four years.
Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids and the state’s GOP delegation in Congress have issued separate statements criticizing Kelly’s handling of the unemployment problems.
Even as Kelly was announcing the ramped-up call center, House lawmakers were debating sweeping legislation to address unemployment.
Among other things the bill called for the creation of a committee to oversee KDOL, upgrades to the IT system by the end of 2022 and revisions in eligibility to lower the amount of time a Kansan can draw benefits if the unemployment rate is low.
Portions of the bill received bipartisan support but Democrats pushed back on the changes to unemployment eligibility and pushed to remove that language.
“Giving them this additional time is not only a move of common sense but compassion,” said Rep. Stephanie Clayton, an Overland Park Democrat.
An amendment to remove those limitations and another to remove some exclusions on eligibility failed.
“It is important to get these people back into work sooner rather than later and if you give them more time it’ll just draw out the process,” said Rep. Sean Tarwater, a Stillwell Republican.
Lawmakers expect to vote on the bill Thursday.
Kelly wouldn’t commit Wednesday to supporting or rejecting the legislation if passed.
“There are some things that I would find a poison pill,” she said. “Reducing unemployment or making it harder to access would not make it my favorite.”
This story was originally published March 3, 2021 at 5:29 PM with the headline "Kansas labor department plans to more than double unemployment call center staff."
