Unemployment Insurance eligibility question

[Metlakatla]

Anyway, OP, it's probably not so much that your former employer contested it but rather that they simply told the truth; that you were offered additional hours but declined them.

[AndyAMG]

Let this be a lesson kids, do thorough research on an "employer" before you sign on with them. I don't get what would attract someone to a job where "they pay you only if they can." That seems like a no-brainer to not work for a company like that. Reputable starters either have the boss/founder/partners do everything until they have raised enough financial capital to be successful or at the very least pay employees for their work.

Was this employer really an employer, with an EIN number? I know software developers who never are actually legally employed, therefore have no rights to UI. Many people don't understand how UI actually works. They just assume if you work and then are laid off you get UI, but it's not that simple.

Fight it, best of luck findindg more stable employment. If you have skills that pay the bills, go into business for yourself. In the online digital age it's easy to start a business and find clients and raise capital. Just grow slowly and don't hire anyone until you have enough profit to do so.

[Metlakatla]

I don't know where the assumptions are coming from, but whatever. Small businesses go under all the time, and nothing in the OP indicated that this business was just paying "whenever." It sounds like they decided to downsize significantly because money ran out for payroll and weren't trying to tell anyone they'd only be paid when they could.

Surely the OP is intelligent enough to know if he/she'd been working under the table, UI benefits wouldn't be part of the picture.

[Nell Plotts]

AndyAMG is spot on.

[Metlakatla]

He is, if the assumptions made are true. I just can't find where the OP said that the company was only paying "when they could." They laid off employees when they couldn't make payroll. Maybe the OP will come along and clarify whether the assumptions are true, but until then, it just looks like the unemployment claim was denied because the OP turned down work.

[jjpop]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

He is, if the assumptions made are true. I just can't find where the OP said that the company was only paying "when they could." They laid off employees when they couldn't make payroll. Maybe the OP will come along and clarify whether the assumptions are rue, but until then, it just looks like the unemployment claim was denied because the OP turned down work.

This was my thinking upon reading the OP too. An offer of continuing work was made (albeit a cut to hours), and the OP turned the offer down. That could be viewed as a voluntary quit. Depending on how the OP phrased it in their original claim, all the employer would need to state is that continued employment was offered and refused, and that would be grounds for denying the UI claim.