Unemployed factory worker sues as Virginia tries to claw back his jobless benefits

For 26 years, Ernest Ray worked at a company in southwest Virginia that made compressors, in a physically demanding job that involved night shifts on a factory floor. When the plant closed in 2018, Ray applied for and received about $9,000 in unemployment benefits.

Three years later, Ray is fighting the Virginia Employment Commission in court as the agency tries to take the money back. It's a case that, as Ray's pro bono attorney sees it, illustrates the ethos of a radically dysfunctional agency.

"Like the teacher who doesn't like children and the librarian who doesn't like books, this is an agency that doesn't like the people that it's supposed to serve," said Hugh O'Donnell, who has done decades of unemployment compensation work.