When Cheng, a Mien speaker, reached out to the Center for Workers’ Rights in March of this year, she had been trying to access unemployment insurance benefits for more than four months without success.
Through our unemployment insurance clinic, we learned that Cheng had repeatedly asked for an interpreter, having not received forms in her native language, and was told by the representative at EDD it was unnecessary because they were asking “simple questions” or were “unlikely to find an interpreter” that could help her.
CWR continued to work with Cheng, first to secure her a proper interpreter, and then to challenge EDD”s determination disqualifying her for benefits. Nearly 11 months after she first applied for benefits, Cheng won her appeals case and she was paid her unemployment benefits. .
Cheng was able to secure all of the benefits she was entitled to, and her case demonstrates the importance of the passing of our continued monitoring of our language access settlement with EDD reached earlier this year.
CWR will continue to work on multiple fronts to protect workers. Through our work individually consulting with workers all over the state, we are able to understand the issues that need legislative attention from our political representatives and work towards solutions from the ground up.