Library furloughs 22 as doors remain closed
Coeur d’Alene director of human resources Melissa Tosi explains to council Tuesday night the methodology behind the decision to furlough 22 library employees.
Image courtesy of CDA TV
After closing its doors to the public, the Coeur d’Alene Public Library faced the grim reality that businesses and institutions throughout Idaho and across the country are grappling with: layoffs.
Melissa Tosi, director of Human Resources for the city of Coeur d’Alene, said 22 library workers — seven full-time and 15 part-time — were informed Friday of the furloughs. Bette Ammon, library director, said she was heartbroken by the need for the temporary layoffs.
“I am so sad that the library is closed and we’re not able to do the work we love, and I believe all library staff share that feeling,” she said Wednesday. “We’re hoping that benefits available to the furloughed employees with unemployment and stimulus dollars will enable staff to stay home and stay healthy.”
Those stimulus dollars include funds from the CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion stimulus package signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 27. One provision in the CARES Act provides for a $600 weekly benefit for those who file unemployment claims after layoffs resulting from the coronavirus. That $600 is on top of the benefit the Idaho Department of Labor already provides. It’s a benefit Tosi said would save those who are laid off.
During Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Mayor Steve Widmyer noted the irony of the CARES ACT and its impact on library employees.
“Most all of our furloughed employees will actually make more money being on furlough than they would be working,” he said.
Initial unemployment claims in Idaho have skyrocketed since the coronavirus first hit. Idahoans filed 32,941 first-time claims in the week ending March 28, according to figures released Wednesday from the Idaho Department of Labor. That number is a 143-percent jump from the previous week’s figures, which was itself a 1,300-percent jump from its previous week’s, before the pandemic reached Idaho.
Funding for the CARES Act’s unemployment benefit provision expires July 31.
Once the library doors re-open, those furloughed employees will be offered their jobs back.