AUGUSTA — Federal agents visited the Maine Department of Labor Tuesday and again today to meet with officials at the Bureau of Unemployment Compensation.

Legislative officials said Wednesday that agents were auditors examining unemployment files in response to reports that officers at the Office of Administrative Hearing were pressured by Gov. Paul LePage to skew appeals cases in favor of employers.

Barbara D’Amore, workforce security chief at the U.S. Dept. of Labor met with bureau head Laura Boyett for more than four hours on Tuesday, according to department sign-in logs. John Murphy, from the regional employment and training administration in Boston was at the department on Wednesday.

A spokesman at the department declined to comment on why the federal agents were at the state agency.

A Sun Journal investigation cited sources in a report last week that LePage had called Department of Labor employees to a mandatory March 21 luncheon at the Blaine House and scolded them for finding too many unemployment-benefit appeals cases in favor of workers. They were told they were doing their jobs poorly, sources said. Afterward, they said they felt abused, harassed and bullied by the governor. 

Gov. Paul R. LePage intends to sign an executive order to establish a blue ribbon commission to investigate Maine’s unemployment compensation system, according to a news statement issued by his office Wednesday afternoon.

“Politically motivated demands for the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate a lunch meeting I had with hearings officers are based on anonymous allegations in media reports,” LePage said in the statement.

“This orchestrated effort is designed to distract Mainers from the real issue, which is inconsistencies in the unemployment system. But I remain focused on assuring Mainers that there is fair and consistent application of the law throughout the process. That’s why I am calling for an all-encompassing investigation of the entire system.”

LePage’s office said the blue ribbon commission will include representatives of employers and employees.

The goal of the commission will be to ensure Maine’s Unemployment Insurance system provides benefits for workers who are rightly entitled to them, while ensuring businesses are not charged when they appropriately let employees go, LePage said.

Additionally, the commission will review the rules and laws governing the system to ensure they are consistently applied.

“Let’s take an in-depth look at the state’s entire unemployment compensation system to make sure that it is fair and consistent for all Mainers,” LePage said in the statement.

Also on Wednesday, the Legislature’s Labor Committee was scheduled to take public testimony on a bill submitted by the state Department of Labor on April 2, presented by Sen. John Patrick, R-Oxford, to amend the laws governing unemployment compensation to ensure conformity with the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance Extension Act of 2011.

That bill, which was submitted under Joint Rule 204 that allows state departments to submit bills, was drafted and presented before allegations arose that the governor may have unduly pressured unemployment hearing officers to tilt their decisions pro-business.

The bill would, if passed, permit a 15 percent penalty on anyone who fraudulently misrepresents themselves for unemployment compensation, and would also prohibit an employer from seeking relief of benefit payments if they (or their agent) are found to have failed to provide timely or adequate information to the Department of Labor of an unemployment benefit claim.