Fear of coronavirus will no longer be acceptable reason for Texans on unemployment to turn down job offers

Bernsen said that the pandemic guidelines that allow jobless people to refuse work for COVID-19 safety reasons and still qualify for any state or federal unemployment benefits are associated with the “COVID-related unemployment” that the state withdraws from on June 26.

“The COVID-related programs are ending, so we’re ending the COVID-related exceptions,” he said.

TWC did not immediately release the number of people who have been turning down jobs for COVID-19 safety reasons and would be impacted by this change. Bernsen pointed out that unemployment claims have been declining and vaccination rates increasing in recent months.

“The number this would apply to is continually decreasing,” he said. “We’re not in the height of the pandemic, which is what [the guidelines] were designed for.”

Rick Levy, president of the Texas AFL-CIO, said the changes are “cruel” and exhibit the state’s characteristic “lack of understanding” towards working people and their needs.

“This pandemic is not over,” he said. “To say, ‘Well, we’re heading in the right direction, so we’re going to eliminate doing all the things that have us heading in the right direction,’ is just really short sighted.”