How did enslaving prisoners lead to unemployment? California EDD claimants in the construction trades are asking

EDD classified it as a standard layoff, no fault of mine. The adjudication was pretty smooth actually because the contractor gave a straight answer about why the business closed the crew down. The harder part has been the wage replacement gap - $390 a week when you were making real money doing framing work is rough.

Same thing happened in the landscaping sector around the Sacramento region. When the layoff is legitimate and documented, EDD generally processes it without a phone interview because there's no dispute about why you stopped working. The issue is downstream - when prison labor undercuts entire industries, the UI system doesn't have a category for that kind of structural displacement.

The base period thing confused me too at first. My highest quarter was actually 18 months ago when I had overtime on a commercial job, so the timing worked out okay for my claim. Did the agent say anything about whether you could request a different base period if the numbers came out lower?

The agent explained that the alternate base period - your four most recent completed quarters instead - only kicks in automatically if your wages under the standard calculation aren't enough to even make a valid claim. It doesn't get used to try to push your weekly amount higher if the standard one already works. So if your claim is already valid, you're locked into whatever the standard period shows.

Good to know that detail about the alternate base period - I always assumed EDD would just use whichever calculation gave you a higher number, but that's not how it works at all.

Does that mean workers who got displaced this way have no special status in the UI system? Like EDD just treats it as a plain layoff and moves on?

Exactly. From EDD's side, a layoff is a layoff - you're out through no fault of your own regardless of what caused the business decision. The system doesn't distinguish between 'laid off because of automation,' 'laid off because of outsourcing,' or 'laid off because of prison labor contracts.' You get your benefits either way, which is good, but it means EDD isn't tracking that category of displacement specifically.

Not to derail but this whole thread is making me realize how little I understood about how EDD actually calculates eligibility. I thought they just looked at your most recent paycheck.

The 21 days on that notice is the window EDD gives you to register and post a resume on CalJOBS - missing it can actually stop your payments. I'd treat it as a hard deadline. The registration itself takes maybe 20 minutes if you have your work history ready.

Twenty minutes seems manageable. Mine apparently has to include a resume posted publicly which felt weird but okay.

The CalJOBS requirement tripped up a few guys I know from the same crew. EDD doesn't send reminders once you've filed - you have to watch for the DE 8405 in your mail and act on it. A couple of them had their payments pause before they figured out what happened.

Wait the payments actually stop if you don't do CalJOBS? I thought that was just an optional career resource thing. Nobody told me it was connected to getting paid.

Yep, learned that the hard way. Got a one-day job helping a buddy pour a small slab and reported it. The deduction was less than I expected because of how that earnings formula works - something like the first $25 or 25 percent of gross, whichever is bigger, doesn't get counted before the reduction happens.

Right, so if your weekly benefit amount is $390 and you earn $100 on a day job, it's not $390 minus $100. EDD takes 25 percent of $100 off the top first, leaving $75 that actually reduces your payment. So you'd get $315 instead of $290. Worth knowing before people turn down small jobs thinking they'll lose more than they gain.

Does that formula apply to any kind of work or just construction day labor stuff?

Any part-time work that isn't full-time employment. The moment you're working full-time hours, eligibility ends for that week regardless of what you earned. The partial benefit formula is for weeks where you work some but not full-time.

Is there any mechanism where EDD data on construction layoffs gets used to flag this kind of competitive displacement for state labor policy?

EDD does publish labor market information and unemployment data by sector, and the Employment Development Department feeds into broader state workforce planning, but connecting specific layoff spikes in a trade to prison contract competition would require analysis beyond what EDD does administratively. It would more likely come from a legislative study or a labor union filing a complaint with a different agency.

This thread went somewhere I didn't expect but it's actually useful context for why UI claims in certain trades cluster the way they do.

Pending in Claim History after multiple certifications usually means EDD is still working through an eligibility question on that week - could be an identity verification step or a pending adjudication issue. The best move is to either send a message through her UI Online account or call EDD directly at 1-800-300-5616 between 8 and 5 on weekdays to find out what specifically is holding that week.

She said she did verify through ID.me when she applied, so hopefully it's not that. I'll have her send a message through UI Online first and see what comes back.

Pending weeks after ID.me verification can still sit for a while if there's any question EDD needs to resolve, even if identity isn't the issue. Getting an actual human on the phone is faster than waiting for a message response in my experience - the phone queue is brutal though.

That wage record issue sounds like exactly the kind of thing you'd never know was happening without talking to an actual person. Good to know that option exists for getting through.

The wage record thing was completely invisible in UI Online. Nothing on my Claim History page explained what was holding those weeks - just showed Pending with no detail. The agent also confirmed the weekly amount discrepancy would resolve once the corrected wages post, which answered my second question at the same time.

How long does EDD take to update a claim once an employer files a corrected wage report?

The agent said to watch Claim History after a few weeks, but couldn't give me a firm date. Said if nothing changed I should follow up again.

That's basically where I've landed after a few months of thinking about it. The EDD process itself was fine - smooth, no adjudication fight, money in my account within a few weeks of applying. But it doesn't do anything to address the underlying problem in the industry.

Makes sense honestly. UI is income replacement not industry policy. Using it to somehow document or fight the prison labor issue would require going through a different channel entirely - probably DLSE or the legislature.

Actually I think the person who said that did specify it was about firings - the misconduct standard only applies when an employer is claiming termination for cause, right?

Re-reading it you're right, they did say fired. I misread the context. The rule is correct as stated - EDD's standard is that if you're fired, the employer has to show misconduct, and if you quit, you have to show a good reason. For a layoff neither of those applies.

Worth clarifying for people who might skim the thread: getting laid off doesn't trigger any misconduct review. It's only when the employer says you were fired or when you say you quit that EDD has to figure out the why.

EDD requires that you're able and available for work and that you're looking, but EDD's public guidance doesn't give a specific number of contacts you need to make each week. The practical advice I've heard is to keep notes on where you apply and what happened, since EDD can ask about your work search if there's ever a question about your eligibility for a given week.

Keeping notes makes sense. I've been applying to anything remotely related to framing and rough carpentry, plus some equipment operator openings. Feels weird applying to jobs that don't pay close to what I was making but I guess that's the point.

The work search requirement isn't limited to jobs in your exact trade at your previous pay rate. Available for work generally means ready to take suitable work, and what's 'suitable' considers your background and skills - but it's not a reason to only apply to identical jobs. Casting a wider net within construction and related trades is reasonable.

Oh that's a genuinely important distinction. I was counting from my application date and I would have been wrong.

The DE 8405 came about ten days after I filed for me. So if someone isn't watching their mail they could easily miss the actual deadline without realizing it.

Worth saying again for anyone who skims: the clock starts from the date printed on the DE 8405 notice EDD mails you, not from when you filed online or by phone.

The waiting week got me too. Spent two days convinced I had a problem with my claim before someone explained what it was. First certification usually covers the waiting week and then one paid week, so the first payment is for a single week even though you certified for two.

EDD doesn't explain that prominently anywhere in the initial claim materials from what I remember. Good catch for people who are new to this.

Found it eventually in the documentation that came with my DE 429Z but it was not highlighted. Easy to panic when you expect two weeks of payments and only one shows up.

My old foreman actually pointed us toward one of those organizations after the crew shutdown. They've been collecting declarations from displaced workers. Doesn't fix the immediate cash flow problem but at least it goes somewhere useful eventually.

Is there a way to flag the layoff reason when certifying through UI Online so it's at least in the EDD data somewhere?

Not really. The certification questions are about your work search and any work or wages that week - there's no field for describing why you were originally laid off. That detail lives in the initial application record but doesn't get surfaced in the ongoing claim data in a way that tracks causal categories.

Payment method changes in myEDD should apply going forward once they're active. If the method change was processed before EDD releases the pending weeks, the back pay should go to whichever method is current when it processes. Worth checking your payment details in UI Online after anything posts to confirm.

Makes sense. I'll keep an eye on UI Online payments section after my pending weeks release. Didn't want to call EDD just for that but good to know what to watch for.

Payment history in UI Online updates daily, so once a pending week releases you'll see it there pretty quickly. The 1-800 line at 1-866-333-4606 also shows payment info 24 hours a day if you want to check without logging in.

That's exactly where my head has been at. Benefits are running out at the end of the year. At week 11 now, 15 more to go before the 26 weeks are done. After that there's no extension unless state or federal law triggers one based on unemployment levels, which isn't happening right now. So the clock matters.

Are you looking at retraining options through any of the AJCC locations? California Training Benefits could let you stay in school or an approved program while still collecting, and there's even a training extension that might add weeks before your claim runs out.

Someone at an AJCC mentioned the California Training Benefits program to me last week, actually. Have to look into what programs qualify and whether I'd need to apply before my 16th week of benefits - apparently the timing on the training extension request matters.

The 16th week deadline for the training extension request is worth taking seriously if retraining is a real option. That's not a lot of runway when you're already 11 weeks in.

Glad someone said this clearly. I elected withholding when I filed just to avoid a surprise bill in April.

The 10 percent withholding option is easy to miss during the initial application flow. If you didn't set it up at the start you can change it during certifications - it's one of the questions you answer each time.

The employer response timeline is something I had no idea could affect payment timing. So even a clean layoff can get held up because the employer is slow to respond to EDD's notice?

Exactly. EDD mails the former employer a DE 1101CZ after you file and they have ten days to respond. If they don't respond on time, EDD still processes the claim but if they do respond late, it can create a review period. The agent said since the layoff was legitimate and undisputed, the weeks should release once the review closes.

Two weeks held up because of a paperwork timing issue on the employer's side, not anything the claimant did. That's the kind of thing that makes people think EDD is punishing them when it's completely out of their hands.

Had no idea CalFresh and unemployment overlapped. I assumed it was one or the other.

A lot of people assume that. The county determines CalFresh eligibility based on your household income and size - unemployment benefits are listed as proof of income when you apply, not as a disqualifier. Worth applying and letting the county do the math rather than assuming you won't qualify.

Applied for CalFresh three weeks after my layoff and got approved. The UI benefit amount I told them about definitely counted toward the income calculation but I still qualified for a partial benefit. For anyone with kids in the house especially, worth doing the application.