ARAH C. LOCKHART, WD DIRECTOR ELSTON GEORGE, UI DIRECTOR

• Ensure every employer is aware of and provided access to – services & programs available to them through Workforce

Development − Identify strategies which

• Increase current “business engagement”

• Facilitate compliance with Act 5174 – Registration of Vacancies

• On-the-job Training is a method of delivering training services to adults and dislocated workers.

• OJT helps employers hire and train individuals for long-term employment. This is an opportunity for an employer to work with VIDOL American Job Center to recruit, pre-screen and hire new employees, and to train them in specific skills. • The employer is reimbursed for the costs of training, up to 75 percent of trainees' wages during training period.

• Transitional Jobs offer a way for adult or dislocated workers with barriers to gain employment, in addition to, those who have experienced chronic unemployment, have a limited work history or have limited skills to gain much-needed experience.

• Transitional jobs are time-limited and wage-paid work experiences that Department of Labor pay 100 percent of the Transitional Job trainee salary. These jobs are in the public, private, or nonprofit sectors and are only available for individuals with barriers to employment who are chronically unemployed or have an inconsistent work history.

• IWT provides both workers and employers with the opportunity to build and maintain a quality workforce.

• IWT is designed to meet the needs of an employer or group of employers to retain a skilled workforce and to prevent layoffs.

• Rapid response Coordinators can benefit employers by:

Assisting with early intervention to allow employers and workers to communicate about their concern

Improving morale and productivity and lowing absenteeism due to reduced stress

Assisting in managing your human resource needs

Counseling affected workers in their efforts to return to work

Educating employers on such topics as Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), Trade Adjustment Assistance Act (TAA). Workforce Investment Act (WIA), and other program.

Helping maintain a good corporate relationship with the community.

A special team of reemployment experts will visit your place of business to ease the fear and assist with the transition of your dislocated workers.

The Foreign Labor Certification Process allows employers to bring foreign workers, who are temporarily authorized by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services into the United States on a temporary basis

when there are not enough able and qualified U.S. Workers available for the position.

• The H-2B Permits employers to hire foreign workers to come temporarily to the U.S. and perform temporary non-agricultural services or labor on a one-time, seasonal, peak-load when there are not enough qualified U.S. workers available for the position.

• The H-1B program allows an employer to temporarily employ a foreign worker in the U.S. on a non-immigrant basis in a specialty occupation or as a fashion model of distinguished merit and ability.

• A specialty occupation requires the theoretical and practical application of a body of specialized knowledge and a bachelor's degree or the equivalent in the specific specialty (e.g., sciences, medicine and health care, education, biotechnology, and business specialties, etc…).

Work Opportunity Tax Credit is a Federal tax incentive that Congress provides to employers who file IRS tax returns. The main objective of this program is to enable the targeted employees to gradually move from economic dependency into self-sufficiency as they earn a steady income and become contributing taxpayers.

• TANF Recipients 1

• Veterans 2

• SNAP (Food Stamp) 3

The employers must hire individuals from certain target groups who have consistently faced significant barriers to employment.

• Vocational Rehabilitation 4

• EX-Felon 5

• Disable Veterans 6

• The Federal Bonding Program provide Fidelity Bonds that guarantee honesty for “at-risk”, hard-to-place job seekers.

• Any at-risk job applicant is eligible for bonding services, including: ex-offenders, recovering substance abusers (alcohol or drugs), welfare recipients and other persons having poor financial credit, economically disadvantaged youth and adults who lack a work history, individuals dishonorably discharged from the military, and others.

VIDOL Program & Services

1 Unemployment Insurance 5 Labor Relations

2 Training & Development 6 Workers’ Compensation

3 Youth services 7 Hearing & Appeals

4 Occupational Safety & health 8 Labor Statistic

http://www.vidol.gov

The link above is for Virgin Islanders living abroad to access VIeWS

Faye Reed ( Chief of Tax) Janice Hodge (Chief of Benefits)

Phone: (340) 776-3700 ext. 2035 Phone: (340) 776-3700 ext. 2005

Email: freed@vidol.gov Email: jehodge@vidol.gov

Joyce Comissiong (Administrator-STT) Debra George (Administrator-STX)

Phone: (340) 776-3700 ext. 2094 Phone: (340) 773-1994 ext. 2148

Email: jdcomissiong@vidol.gov Email: dgeorge@vidol.gov

St. Thomas /St. John/Water Island & St. Croix

• St. Thomas /St. John/Water Islands Charlene M. Hodge

Phone: 340-776-3700 ext. 2099

Email: chodge@vidol.gov

Jacqueline M. Blyden Ruejah Smith

Phone: (340) 776-3700 ext. 2055 Phone: (340) 776-3700 ext. 2044

Email: jblyden@vidol.gov Email: rssmith@vidol.gov

• St. Croix Tisha Llanos Juanita Canton

Phone: (340) 773-1994 ext. 2209 Phone: (340) 773-1994 ext. 2128

Email: tllanos@vidol.gov Email: jcanton@vidol.gov

Prudence Tuitt

Phone: (340) 773-1994 ext. 2138

Email: ptuitt@vidol.gov

QUESTIONS?