How Does a California Employment Training Panel (ETP) Work

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: CA is anyone familiar with ETP? a government funding by California Employment Development Department or EDD for employers who wished to provide training to employees. How do employees benefit from this, and how will the EDD know fund provided is not abused or misused?

The employees benefit by getting job training and a job.

One would assume that EDD has processes in place to reduce abuse or misuse. But we are talking about California so who knows.

P.S. This is not a legal question.

The funding of the program is performance based. The employer has to submit the results of their use of the program: that the employees were gainfully employed, before the state pays out.

Why would you not ask the EDD? If you are an employer desiring to use the program, they will be more than glad to explain it to you. I assure you that this program, like all state and federally funded programs, are monitored and are governed by guidelines which determine how and when the program monies are paid and under what circumstances these programs operate. Are you concerned with someone who may be abusing the program? If so, call the fraud hotline and report what you believe to be happening. You will not hear what happened or what the result of your reporting may be, but it is very likely that the situation you call about will be investigated for any possible misuse. I do not understand your purpose in asking this question or exactly what you are trying to find out. If you are someone who has been using and possibly abusing the program and are wondering if you will be found out, or if you are considering the program for your business, or if you know someone who may be on the program and you are attempting to determine if they are attempting to commit fraud, whatever, I am relatively sure, after many years of working for state and federal programs, that there is monitoring and there are federal regs in place that determine how and when these monitoring activities are carried out. (even in California!)

As I stated, the employer who wants to make use of the ETP funds has to show the trainee was employeed at a give wage for a certain number of months BEFORE the state pays out. What sort of abuse or misuse are you envisioning.

I just happened to work with a company who had ETP a few months back, and to be honest I never heard of ETP before we had our first inservice that says ETP on the sign in sheet, so I made a little research about it and my understanding with it that employer asked to be funded to provide employee trainings for the purpose of retaining them and avoid high turnover. but how is it monitored, like for instance one of the requirements is that training should be done in classroom or computer-based, and employer must submit the number of attendees and the number of hours for that specific training. what if employer does not provide trainings, and submitted the required signatures of attendees from random staff meetings? and who should be the trainor, if required? those questions among other things

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Quoting tfctvonnie

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I just happened to work with a company who had ETP a few months back, and to be honest I never heard of ETP before we had our first inservice that says ETP on the sign in sheet, so I made a little research about it and my understanding with it that employer asked to be funded to provide employee trainings for the purpose of retaining them and avoid high turnover. but how is it monitored, like for instance one of the requirements is that training should be done in classroom or computer-based, and employer must submit the number of attendees and the number of hours for that specific training. what if employer does not provide trainings, and submitted the required signatures of attendees from random staff meetings? and who should be the trainor, if required? those questions among other things

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Again, ask EDD.

That would be considered fraud and would be against the law.

So call the state hotline and anonymously report the fraud you believe has occurred. This will never be directed back at you in any way, you'll never hear about an outcome, but when you see that a company may be abusing a federal or state taxpayer funded program, by all means, report them. I think it's pretty much your civic duty. It's not going to cost you anything, it's anonymous and if they're not committing fraud they'll have nothing to worry about. This is the way a great many incidents of fraud and taxpayer abuse are discovered and taken care of, and the mechanics of investigating and pursuing fraud in government programs work better than the public perception of them.

that s the reason why I asked here, I don't know what is required for the employer to show their compliance with the funding program, and if my understanding is correct that training should be provided to employees, on a set number of training hours, and not during work hours, in a classroom-based or computer-based method, with a qualified instructor/trainer, then that didn't happened at our workplace. and if employer submitted to EDD or ETP officials signatures of employees from random short meetings or in in-services to look like training was conducted, then it is fraudulent. But my understanding could be wrong as well, that's why I I needed opinion from someone who had actual experience with ETP.

Not necessary that you understand everything about the program or that you have proof that the program isn't being done correctly before you call the hotline with your suspicions. If a complaint comes in that the program "may not" have been administered correctly, that will likely get them an investigation. As I said, if there's nothing wrong going on, they have nothing to fear. Investigators check up on and verify the participants in their programs at random anyway, and a very good place to start with who they investigate is those who've had complaints or allegations made against them. The company will never know it was you who complained unless you are a dope and talk about what you've done to co workers, etc. or threaten your employer, and you will probably never find out if anything was done about their situation. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't report your perceptions of how the program is being operated.

thank you for sharing your opinion.

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Quoting tfctvonnie

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thank you for sharing your opinion.

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Ummm, comment/ator's responses to you are not mere opinions, they are facts. comment/ator has more than 30 years' experience working in the UI system, and whatever she says about how that system works is gold. You may not like what she says (as evidenced by your response that her vast knowledge is simply an opinion), however, rest assured, it is always completely true and factually accurate.

I apologize if I created a wrong impression with my last post, obviously eerelations is a true believer of comment/ator, and took my last post the wrong way. but for the sake of the of your argument, neither comment/ator or you had mentioned facts. I am seeking a concrete answer, or point me where in the law or regulations could I find answer, because you both suggested that I report, but relying on my suspicion is not enough, I don't want to report if I can't back it up with facts based from laws or regulation, and I believe filing report without merits or basis, is a waste of time and resources for the company being reported, and also the agency/office where it is reported.

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I am seeking a concrete answer, or point me where in the law or regulations could I find answer

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Have you been to the ETP website? It explains the program fully and you can also download the rules in pdf format.

yes i did, there I was also able to see the contract of my employer, it is a public document so I was able to review the content of the contract. and i am sure, my employer did something favorable to them, I am calling the department.

I don't think or don't remember that you said what your interest is in this. Are you a trainee or are you someone that works for the company and wants to bring them to Jesus. What is your motive in all this?

I believe he is both.

Even so, what is the motivation? All I can see is some altruistic motive to punish the company. I don't see any benefit to OP.

I am an employee, and many occasions had my signature used as a trainee, when in fact it wasn't a training but a usual stand up meetings or short inservices.

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Quoting tfctvonnie

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I am an employee, and many occasions had my signature used as a trainee, when in fact it wasn't a training but a usual stand up meetings or short inservices.

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Still doesn't explain why you want to get your employer in trouble.

You might check other posting history-/ sounds likely the OP is unhappy and looking for something to get the employer into trouble

Well, this employee/former employee, whatever she is, she is seeking a form of satisfaction from her actions that she is not going to be able to get.

Based upon years of experience working with these types of programs and doing fraud investigation, having enough information to nail them to the ground and prove they have actually committed fraud is SO not necessary, and is NOT important. As a layman, you can read their training contract with the DOL until your eyes fall out, and you still won't understand exactly what constitutes fraud in the program, exactly how your employer was supposed to do the program, and whether their requirements were met. It is not your job to do that anyway.

The agency, in the other hand will know exactly what they want to see in regard to how the program was operated, who signed what, how much training the employees actually received. In fact, they do evaluations and quality control inspections on random employers who are participating in the program, even if there has not been a report that the entity is committing fraud. So the employer is on notice, just by signing up for the program that they may be subjected to an investigation or quality control audit at random.

The thing you will not get out of it, even if you are right on the money and they are committing whole scale fraud, is recognition, or any follow up information from the agency on the results of your report. They're not going to call you up afterward and tell you how the investigation came out, or give you any sort of whistleblower's award. One of the reasons people can continue to believe that these programs are filled with fraud and graft is that the agency's investigations and the catching of the frauds that have happened are rarely made public. The company is fined, pays back misappropriated funds, etc. But they are rarely prosecuted in criminal court and you will never ever be called to be a witness even if they were. So reporting them for fraud is a thankless sort of task, and believe me, you don't need to spend hours of your time investigating anything and making sure it's 100% accurate before you do any reporting. It's not your job. And as I have always maintained here, it does not affect the salary of the people who are supposed to do the investigation whether they catch anyone or not. They just do their jobs.