[fgl29]

I saw someone here that worked for Unemployment benefits and was hoping they would check this out and give us some advice.Here's our story.

I work for a Major Las Vegas Casino & Resort.

Approximately 1 month ago our part time dealers which are also known as extra board dealers were told they would not be terminated by the company but would receive NO WORKING TIME or HOURS until the economy got better.This was a cost cutting measure they told us as a group to prevent the need to layoff Full Time dealers.


Now only 1 month later this is the scenario.Full Time dealers are being taken to the office and told they are being FIRED BUT are being offered these part time or extra board positions which come with NO working hours and no scheduled time.They are being told they will lose their benefits packages effective immediately And if they DO NOT ACCEPT THE OFFER OF PART TIME THEY WILL ALSO NOT BE ELIGIBLE FOR ANY UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS EITHER seeing as how they turned down the job offer.
This seems to Us as a group that they are obviously forcefully taking away benefits and using the threat of not accepting the part Time offer as a weapon to stop an employee from filing or unemployment by misleading the employee that they will somehow not be eligible for unemployment benefits.


Could You please tell us what is correct. Thank You for any help.

[jjameson922]

Unemployment varies from state to state but with only little nuances, they are virtually the same. Here in Ohio, part-time employees are not eligible for benefits. If full time workers are fired, they are not eligible. If full time workers are fired, they would not be hired as part-timers. The casino appears to be covering it's butt so it can lay off its workers and not have it's unemployment acct. debited. Unemployment looks at your employer work record over a period of time and may end up debiting the account of the previous employer. I think if the casino fired someone, then hired them as part-time with no hours and was dumb enough to leave a paper trail saying this, the employee would win benefits by their first appeal date. Usually employers try to lay off the employee, offer them another half ass job which they of course turn down and then claim the employee quit so they don't have their benefit account tapped. The half ass job has to conform to certain criteria though. I would call your local office or check the website to get that info.

[Soundman123]

In California, you get unemployment if you are fired, or you are forced to quit due to unconscionable circumstances like those described in the OP. Cutting your hours back to zero, reducing pay, or changing your job title to something different than you originally agreed entitles you to unemployment. Nevada may be different but it shouldn’t be a problem to collect unemployment unless you were fired for gross insubordination.

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by fgl29

I saw someone here that worked for Unemployment benefits and was hoping they would check this out and give us some advice.Here's our story.

I work for a Major Las Vegas Casino & Resort.

Approximately 1 month ago our part time dealers which are also known as extra board dealers were told they would not be terminated by the company but would receive NO WORKING TIME or HOURS until the economy got better.This was a cost cutting measure they told us as a group to prevent the need to layoff Full Time dealers.


Now only 1 month later this is the scenario.Full Time dealers are being taken to the office and told they are being FIRED BUT are being offered these part time or extra board positions which come with NO working hours and no scheduled time.They are being told they will lose their benefits packages effective immediately And if they DO NOT ACCEPT THE OFFER OF PART TIME THEY WILL ALSO NOT BE ELIGIBLE FOR ANY UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS EITHER seeing as how they turned down the job offer.
This seems to Us as a group that they are obviously forcefully taking away benefits and using the threat of not accepting the part Time offer as a weapon to stop an employee from filing or unemployment by misleading the employee that they will somehow not be eligible for unemployment benefits.


Could You please tell us what is correct. Thank You for any help.

Sorry I haven't replied but I was away for a couple of weeks.

I've been away from unemployment since my retirement, so even though I retired from ESD, I may be wrong. But I'll give you some simple rules below, after the following editorial.

This is what I have been telling people since 1991: You will NEVER ─ repeat, NEVER─ get an accurate answer from anyone outside the Unemployment Office. In fact they will be so far wrong that you will probably end up losing your benefits if you listen to them, and you may even get into trouble. It is so complicated that you may not even get a correct answer from many workers IN the Unemployment Office. So believe no one, and just file your claim and let ESD tell you if you are eligible and what you are supposed to do.

I guarantee that the answers that have already been posted are wrong and no one on this forum will have a correct answer. So if anyone offers you advice just ignore it and read the book you get when you file. You won't understand it probably, but it's better than the dumb answers well meaning friends and relatives give.

Now for my dumb answers:
To receive unemployment benefits YOU MUST BE UNEMPLOYED THROUGH NO FAULT OF YOUR OWN, you must actively seek full-time work each week, and you must be able and available to work each week. If I remember right, you must also be willing to take part time work if offered. (Believe me, even long time ESD employees have to refer to the rules constantly.)

I can't actually tell from your statements what is really going on at the hotel. They don't just fire people for no reason. It sounds like they are being laid off due to lack of work, not fired ─ no one is being accused of misconduct, which is usually why you get fired. They couldn't say they were firing people if they were offering them another job.

In the case of a lay off, unemployment is USUALLY automatic, but you have to file. It all depends on whether you made enough wages in the "Base Period", and a few other things though.

The part about turning down the extra board is tricky though. If you turn down "suitable" work you could lose your benefits, but it has to be decided by an Adjudicator at ESD whether it was suitable work or not. The thing is though, why turn it down? When you are on the extra board you are considered laid off every night unless they tell you that day to come in the next day. If they keep calling you in then great, you're still working aren't you? If they don't call you in you can get unemployment for those weeks that you earn less than whatever unemployment benefits that you qualify for. That is tricky too because a dealer could work one day and make more in tips than a week's unemployment. But so what? People would rather work than get unemployment insurance.

In the meantime you should have plenty of time to go out and look for a full time job, although it may take a juggling act since you don't want to miss any call-ins from the hotel. Thousands of people in Las Vegas have been living this way for years though. Especially convention and banquet workers.

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by Soundman123

In California, you get unemployment if you are fired, or you are forced to quit due to unconscionable circumstances like those described in the OP. Cutting your hours back to zero, reducing pay, or changing your job title to something different than you originally agreed entitles you to unemployment. Nevada may be different but it shouldn’t be a problem to collect unemployment unless you were fired for gross insubordination.

At ESD I took hundreds of California claims, as well as interstate claims from every other state, US territory, and military branch, so we had to know not only Nevada's laws, but those of all the others as well. California's rules are very similar to ours, and the basics apply to every state. In any state, if you get fired you may be denied benefits, and quitting will almost certainly mean no benefits, except for only a couple of very unusual circumstances.

It's best not to offer unemployment advice to anyone as EVERY case is different.