Summer Checks Not Permitted For School Aides: D.C. Cafeteria Workers Got Unemployment I
The D.C. government paid several hundred cafeteria workers and other nonprofessional school employees more'than $1 million in unemployment 'benefits last summer without D.C. Council approval and now faces angry, protests from workers who. counted on getting the same money this year.</br></br>Phillip A. Feaster, president of Teamsters Union Local 639, said he was trying to arrange food donations . for some of his members while seeking a-hearing with the D.C. Department 6f Employment Services on the matter.</br></br>No other city or state gives unemployment checks to school employ-. ces during summer vacation, but Congress said in 1991 that the District .could give the money to non-professional workers if it wished.</br></br>Thp council soured on the program find did not renew it in 1996, after 'auditors reported that 294 workers had defrauded the city by continuing to collect unemployment checks after returning to work in the fall.</br></br>The money went out after a ruling by the cityÛªs Department of Employ-ment'.Services, according to Frank 1 Orlando, associate director of un-j employment compensation for that i department. Orlando said his office ÐÊ	ruled that the cafeteria workers were entitled to the payments because school officials had begun to discuss hiring a private food service company, which meant the workers were no longer assured of jobs in the fall.