“Thank you for calling the Texas Workforce Commission. For English, press one.”
Those are the first words greeting Texans attempting to call the “hotline” Gov. Greg Abbott said he set up to report employers implementing COVID vaccine mandates in defiance of an executive order he issued purporting to ban them.
But despite Abbott’s characterization that he “created a hotline for employees to report illegal vaccine mandates in Texas,” the phone number connects dialers to the main number for the Texas Workforce Commission—not a dedicated hotline.
Once selecting a preferred language, a recording immediately directs those applying for unemployment benefits to press one on their keypads. For those looking to change their account PINs or addresses, press two. For questions and changes to existing claims, press three.
That’s it.
Even though the hotline was announced by Abbott on Wednesday afternoon, as of Thursday no option has been added to report a COVID vaccine mandate violation.
And talking to an operator doesn’t appear to help.
“I called it. I went ahead and used option #3 just to talk to someone,” Charlie T. commented on Facebook. “The workforce employee had NO CLUE what I was talking about. They put me on hold and never came back.”
“Hey Abbott get your Administration services under control. You are the Executive correct?” he added.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party of Texas and a growing number of GOP lawmakers are calling on Abbott to call the Legislature back for a fourth special session to pass legislation banning vaccine mandates.
Thus far, the governor has refused to do so.
