AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Maine is allowing unemployment benefit seekers to use a phone system amid complaints that the roll-out of a new online system has meant long waits and poor customer service.
The Maine Department of Labor says 95 percent of claimants are using an online system to report their weekly efforts to find work.
But, the department said, individuals can now also call during the week to report such efforts.
The Morning Sentinel obtained an internal confidential memo claiming the state botched rollout of the new system and covered up complaints by destroying them. Labor Commissioner John Butera has described such accusations as “baseless and unequivocally false.”
The Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee in March voted to investigate the department and the Office of Information Technology.
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