5/12/21 'You Have To Pay Me Cash.' Some Workers Asking To Be Paid Under The Table To Keep Unemployment Benefits, N.J. Employers Say While some workers are staying home because of COVID fears or child care issues, others just aren't ready to give up their unemployment benefits for a job, they said. One of the issues is that the Labor Department isn't enforcing requirements that workers must actively seek a job and not turn down any offers of "suitable work" to be eligible for unemployment benefits, employers said at a Tuesday town hall hosted by the New Jersey Business Coalition, a group of 100 statewide business associations. And given expanded unemployment benefits, some workers are trying to double-dip, asking to be paid cash under the table so they can continue to collect benefits, employers said.
5/12/21
NACS Works With U.S. Agencies on Fuel Waivers Unlike fuel disruptions caused by hurricanes and other natural disasters, the challenges fuel retailers are currently facing due to Colonial Pipeline shutdown are more about fuel transportation and the ability to move fuel to needed locations, rather than a production or refining issue. The industry is in a unique situation where it is transitioning from winter blends to summer blends of fuel, and consumer demand is increasing as Memorial Day weekend approaches and the summer driving season kicks off. To make matters more complicated, there is national labor shortage in the industry, including a deficit of truck drivers. To address this major supply disruption in the fuels market, the Biden Administration is working with our industry and issued several waivers to help alleviate the issues caused by the shutdown. On May 11, EPA issued a reformulated gas (RFG) l waiver for the Mid-Atlantic which will allow conventional fuel to be sold in RFG areas in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia to facilitate the supply of gasoline.
5/12/21 Gas Shortage Update: Colonial Pipeline Hack, Panic Buying Cause Station Closures, Gas Price Increase. Here's The Latest Gasoline shortages have hit several states along the East Coast after a ransomware attack shut down the Colonial Pipeline, leading to panic buying that caused long lines and gas stations to run out of fuel. Gas prices are also expected to continue to climb. The problems are most pronounced in North Carolina where 12.3% of gas stations were out of fuel as of late Tuesday, according to GasBuddy.com. About 8.6% of Virginia stations lacked gas as did 8% in Georgia, 5.9% in South Carolina and 3% in Florida following the attack on the 5,500 mile long Colonial Pipeline last week.
5/11/21 Gas Pumps Start To Run Dry From Hacked Pipeline Shutdown Motorists across a broad swath of the U.S. East Coast and South are struggling to find gasoline and diesel as filling stations run dry amid the unprecedented pipeline disruption caused by a criminal hack. From Virginia to Louisiana, convenience stores and corner gas stations are turning away customers as tanks tap out amid panic buying. The White House relaxed some environmental rules in a bid to allow gasoline to flow in from other parts of the country. One Washington D.C.-area fuel distributor warned that "catastrophic" shortages are imminent and called on government officials to order school buses to stay off the roads. Four days into the crisis, Colonial Pipeline Co. has only managed to restart a small segment of the pipeline as a stopgap measure and doesn't expect to be able to substantially restore service before the weekend. "It's going to be catastrophic," said John Patrick, chief operating officer of Liberty Petroleum LLC in Chester, Maryland. "Governors should declare a state of emergency and ask people chasing tanker trucks to gas stations to stay home. School buses stay put." 5/10/21 Gottheimer, Lagana, Tully, Swain Announce New NJ State Proposal to Combat New York's Congestion Tax Scheme Today, U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5), along with NJ State Senator Joe Lagana (LD-38), Assemblyman Chris Tully (LD-38), and Assemblywoman Lisa Swain (LD-38), proposed new state legislation to fight back against New York's congestion tax scheme targeting hard-working New Jersey families and daily commuters with a new $3,000-per-year daily fee when entering into Midtown Manhattan. If New York moves forward with its congestion tax, new legislation will be introduced in both the NJ State Senate and State Assembly to add the New Jersey state sales tax only for out-of-state drivers to every toll at every crossing from New Jersey into New York. Every sales tax dollar collected will go to a new Congestion Tax Relief Fund to help New Jersey commuters who will get whacked by New York's congestion tax scheme. New Jersey commuters will get a credit from the new fund to help cover congestion fee costs. 5/10/21 N.J. Has Hiring Crisis: Here Are Some Ways To Address It Small businesses in all industries, from child care and day camps to manufacturing and seasonal tourism, placing ads and help wanted signs everywhere, and getting few to zero responses. Welcome to New Jersey's great hiring challenge - the result of a perfect storm, which includes: Continued unemployment and stimulus payments causing many people to pass on work opportunities to instead collect an unemployment check; A lack of child care availability, with schools still not fully open in many areas and child care center license restrictions limiting capacity; Last year's ban on J1 Visa applicants for summer work continuing to impact this year's Shore-area employers. Gov. Phil Murphy appears to be dismissing this as a "passing reality," even though the enhanced Unemployment Insurance payments come to an end in September - after the tourism season ends. And, because he will not enforce the "actively looking for work" requirements, this crisis may actually get worse before it gets better. 5/7/21 SBA Has $5B Grant Program For Small Businesses: Here's Who Qualifies For Money It's not too late to apply for funds under the Small Business Administration's Supplemental Targeted Advances. The SBA will continue to accept applications until the entire $5 billion is awarded. The program is targeted at up to 1 million small businesses and nonprofits. To be eligible, the small businesses must have no more than 10 employees, be located in low-income areas, and had an economic loss due to the coronavirus pandemic of greater than 50% over an eight-week period since March 2, 2020, compared to the previous year. They can receive $5,000 in grants, meaning the money does not have to be repaid. These are in addition to the $10,000 many businesses received from earlier Economic Injury Disaster Loan funds. 5/7/21 U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Blames Weak Jobs Report On Enhanced Unemployment Benefit, Kicks Off Lobbying Effort The largest business lobbying group in America on Friday blamed a $300-per-week federal jobless benefit for enticing Americans to stay at home and April's far-weaker-than-expected jobs report. "The disappointing jobs report makes it clear that paying people not to work is dampening what should be a stronger jobs market," the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in the hours after the Labor Department released its April 2021 employment report. "One step policymakers should take now is ending the $300 weekly supplemental unemployment benefit," the lobbying group added. "Based on the Chamber's analysis, the $300 benefit results in approximately one in four recipients taking home more in unemployment than they earned working." 5/7/21 Health Advocate or Big Brother? Companies Weigh Requiring Vaccines As American companies prepare to bring large numbers of workers back to the office in the coming months, executives are facing one of their most delicate pandemic-related decisions: Should they require employees to be vaccinated? . . .For the country's largest companies, mandatory vaccinations would protect service workers and lower the anxiety for returning office employees. That includes those who have been vaccinated but may be reluctant to return without knowing whether their colleagues have as well. And there is a public service element: The goal of herd immunity has slipped as the pace of vaccinations has slowed. 5/6/21 Security Guard Prevents Customer From Falling Prey To Gift Card Scam As Lawmakers Call For More Training Kane In Your Corner spoke with some advocates who said that retailers should flag it if someone purchases multiple gift cards worth the maximum amount. Many News 12 viewers wrote in wondering why the fraud departments did not pick up on the extensive purchases like credit card companies do. "It's on the companies that are involved in selling and processing these gift cards to take steps to make them as safe as possible," says John Brevault, with the National Consumer Law Center. 5/7/21 U.S. Adds Just 266,000 Jobs In April, Far Below Expectations The U.S. economy added a mere 266,000 jobs last month. Forecasters had floated gains close to 1 million, making this the biggest miss, relative to expectations, in decades. Why it matters: It's a major setback for the hopes of a speedy labor-market recovery alongside America's great reopening. Adding to the pain: Job gains in March were revised lower. What they're saying: "This is a big miss that changes how we think about the recovery," economist Justin Wolfers tweeted. 5/6/21 RaceTrac Executive Testifies on EVs Yesterday, AJ Siccardi, president of Metroplex Energy, testified before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy on behalf of NACS, SIGMA and NATSO in a hearing entitled, "The CLEAN Future Act: Driving Decarbonization of the Transportation Sector." Siccardi shared the convenience and fuel retailing perspective on decarbonizing the transportation sector and the push by lawmakers to move away from the internal combustion engine to electric vehicles. Atlanta-based Metroplex, a wholesale fuel company, is a subsidiary of RaceTrac. "The fuel retailing industry is indispensable to decarbonizing the transportation sector-both through the sale of cleaner liquid fuels and electric vehicles. We want to partner with Congress to help achieve environmental goals in a market-oriented and affordable manner," Siccardi told the subcommittee. |
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