Critics Say Firm Weakens Safety Net as It Fights Jobless Claims

WASHINGTON — With a client list that reads like a roster of Fortune 500 firms, a little-known company with an odd name, the Talx Corporation, has come to dominate a thriving industry: helping employers process — and fight — unemployment claims.

Talx, which emerged from obscurity over the last eight years, says it handles more than 30 percent of the nation’s requests for jobless benefits. Pledging to save employers money in part by contesting claims, Talx helps them decide which applications to resist and how to mount effective appeals.

The work has made Talx a boom business in a bust economy, but critics say the company has undermined a crucial safety net. Officials in a number of states have called Talx a chronic source of error and delay. Advocates for the unemployed say the company seeks to keep jobless workers from collecting benefits.

“Talx often files appeals regardless of merits,” said Jonathan P. Baird, a lawyer at New Hampshire Legal Assistance. “It’s sort of a war of attrition. If you appeal a certain percentage of cases, there are going to be those workers who give up.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/us/04talx.html?hp

disgusting. Companies like this should be illegal.. yet capitalism and the all mighty dollar rule.

That is abhorrent, but what do we really expect? The mask is almost completely off, now.

Capitalism is growing sharper teeth and longer claws in its overt, economic war against the people here, (in relation to the side it shows "over there"). Of course, that war is basically the perpetual class war gone wild, because it certainly is not the poor and middle-class operating behind the enemy lines.

Oh wait, sorry, that humble analogy could spark controversy even though it is not intended to incite the simple-minded towards insurrection ;)

eom

are they hiring, I do just about anything for a job. but not this I want to help my countrymen & women regain dignity, this is a ripoff cheating scam. What did the US working classes do to deserve this kind of treatment?

staff whose mission was to deny claims so their company would profit - Perhaps there will be a Saw VII that will feature this crew's grisly end-game. Despicable corporate missionaries, all. FANTASY VIOLENCE/RETRIBUTION - It's what to watch w/dinner.