GA Unemployment, Can my claim be denied because my former employer is saying I moved? (work, UI)

[SavannahNoSmile]

Here's the deal... I moved from one side of the country to the other to work for this employer. Part of the employment package was free housing in a property they owned. I lived there for 8 months when I was given 2 weeks notice to move because a friend of theirs was coming down and they wanted him to stay where I was living. I was not compensated for the change in living situation by increasing my salary. By being fairly new to the area, I couldn't find an affordable place to stay on such short notice. I had a friend who lived 2 1/2 hours away who suggested I stay with them until I figured out what I was going to do with my life.

I knew I couldn't drive 2 1/2 hours to work every day, so I turned in my resignation. The wife owner (the business is owned by a husband and wife) said there was no way she could lose me, as I was an asset to their company, and was there any way we could keep me working for them from my new place. I was able to log into the main computer at work from home, and worked remotely. I was able to do 80% of what I had been doing remote from home. They hired a part time person to do the other 20%. They completely accommodated me so they could keep me on board. I would drive down to the shop whenever they needed me there and stay at a hotel for a night or 2 or 3, whatever they needed, whenever they needed - which was about twice a month.

On Jan. 2 of this month, the husband told me they were going to terminate me, with Jan. 15 being my last day. They gave me 1 month severance pay and thanked me for all I had done for them. I just got off the phone with the Georgia Dept. of labor examiner who is reviewing my case. she said my former employer is disputing my unemployment claim, stating that they fired me because I was they needed my availability of physically being in the shop every day and that I was an expense to them with the hotel costs. They NEVER warned me or told me that the arrangement wasn't working out and that I had to physically be there. They allowed me to work form home for TEN months! What it really boils down to - which I didn't tell the examiner, is that the wife liked me and the husband didn't.

Can my claim be denied do you think for the reasons the employer gave them? Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read this and offer any advice. I have until 11:00 am Wed. the 26th to provide any additional info to the examiner to help her decide my case, so any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

[Ariadne22]

Since you had been working remotely for ten months, the employer being inconvenienced at this point is no fault of your own. If you have any emails or other evidence from the owner on their wish to have you work remotely, submit that.

Yes, the claim can be frivolously denied - but GA would need to find you refused the employer's repeated recent requests work on-site. Sometimes interviewers do ignore the obvious.

If that happens, you should win on appeal. It shouldn't come to that.

[SavannahNoSmile]

Thank you Ariadne22 for replying and the advice you have provided! I have been scouring my emails the last few hours, looking for anything that might help me, as so many of my conversations with the wife were verbal. I did find a couple emails that might be helpful..?

One is dated the day before I moved, from the wife owner to their IT guy. She told him I would be working for them remotely and said she wanted to purchase a laptop computer for me to work out of (we never ended up doing that and I just used my own home computer). She also said she wanted to make sure I had Microsoft Office (which I already had, so that was not needed). She asked him to give me remote access to their security camera system and a few other items.

The other email was dated the week after I started working from home, in which the wife owner wrote to the accountant’s office, saying “As you can see life will never be the same without SavannahNoSmile in the office :::::: And thankfully SavannahNoSmile will be helping us remotely otherwise we would be in a horrible pickle.”

I also found the email dated Feb. 18, where she notified me that I had to be out their house by March 5, “sorry for the short notice, but I just got informed last night"

I was thinking of faxing those emails to the claims examiner, along with making the point that it was good enough situation for them for 10 months, and they never said a word about costs, expenses, etc. In fact, out of the 18 months I worked for them - I worked most of that time remote from home than I did at their shop! They never told me I had to physically work there full time, I was never warned. I was also thinking of faxing her my payroll timesheets which shows how many hours I worked, which averaged 50 – 55 hours a week (most of it at home). What do you think?

[Kees]

It sounds to me like you have a solid case and I think you'll win.

I'm chiming in because of your username... Prior to moving to Seattle I spent some time in Savannah. My brother is in Ludowici and my ex is in Rincon.

The job market is pretty weak there... hence my move to the west coast. The max UI benefit for Georgia is $330 a week... it was 26 weeks when I was there but they may have shortened it to 20 weeks or so... I think I read something about it a few months back.

Good luck!