People receiving unemployment benefits who refuse to work in unsafe conditions should remain eligible for benefits, the U.S. Labor Department told states on Thursday, reversing a key policy of the previous administration.

In one of his first moves as president , Joe Biden had instructed the Labor Department to come up with the new guidance.

It outlines three specific circumstances in which a person who is denied regular unemployment benefits by their state workforce agency should be eligible for federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA):

• Workers who were previously laid off, started receiving benefits, but then refused an offer to return because the workplace is not in compliance with local, state, or national health and safety standards directly related to COVID-19.
• School employees who lose hours due to a coronavirus-related closure and have no assurance their job will return, who would not normally be eligible for state benefits.
• People who initially received benefits because their childs school closed and they had to provide child care instead of working, then the school reopened, but the worker had no job to go back to.