Unemployment denied, CA posted in CA forum too (collect, file, apply)

[cdgoldilocks]

My husband took a job as a tow truck driver in 2006. At that time, he agreed to take the job because it was M-F, 8am-5pm. I am a nurse, and we needed to make sure we coordinated our days and hours.

Long story short, the night driver was fired for misconduct, and his boss asked my husband to "temporarily" cover some nights until he could find and train a new night driver. My husband began taking calls and making commissions based on calls. His income began to slowly decrease over time, as he didn't not get on call pay during the night, only commission. I am not sure if not getting on call pay breaks labor laws, but it sure hurt us financially. When he discussed the issue with his boss, his boss promised that he would get his shift and hours back as soon as he could do it.

Several years and a few failed drivers later, the economy tanks and there are FINALLY two part time drivers. However, his boss says he cannot afford to let him come back to days, as he needs to split up the hours among all 3 drivers.

So in January, his first check of the year was $364 for 2 weeks. He couldn't pick up a second job because he was working days/nights and his only weekday off was a sleep day because he took call for 24 hours the day before. Needless to say, my husband quit the job to seek retraining and went to trucking school to get his class A license. He is now seeking employment.

He was denied unemployment, and the reason they denied him was they said he was "unsatisfied" with his wages, and you cannot get unemployment for that. We are appealing, but I need some advice on what will help my husband win his appeal. He would have loved to stay, but the varied days/nights/weekends with the drop in pay from $800 every two weeks to $364 was too much. We have to be able to pay our bills and eat. What do we do?

[cdgoldilocks]

Anyone?

I hope I am explaining the situation so people can understand. There are some key points that played into my husband leaving.

1. He was promised a set, hourly schedule and had that schedule for over a year and a half. He only was supposed to temporarily help his boss out until someone got trained up.

2. My husband went from making a set $13 an hour for 40 hours a week to 4 hours a day set pay, 3 days a week and 48 hours of call with commission only at the end. If my husband got no calls in those 48 hours, he got NO pay. He sat up for 24 hours, two days a week with no on call pay. So, he was guaranteed $13 an hour for 12 hours a week in essence. That was NOT what he agreed to and it is certainly not something that a person living in CA can feed a family on.

3. His employer promised him his old shift back...repeatedly. He was told once he got people fully trained, that he would be their "set" day shift driver.

I guess I am curious what "good cause" is? I would think that some of these issue would be good cause to seek employment elsewhere, especially since my husband desires and is actively seeking full time employment and was promised full time employment when he took this job.

[cbr6864]

sorry to say its pretty clear cut he quit because he wasnt happy. the economy is forcing many companies to make cuts. if he had a signed contract for X amount per hour he could have tried to sue for breech of contract but you would spend more than you would ever be awarded. as far as i know there is no clear definition of "good cause".

The only time it is defined in the statutes, you will find it laid out in those "added provisions" which vary widely from state to state.



Other than that, to get a grasp on what may amount to good cause you need either "unemployment precedent decisions" or years of repetition applying some basic principles of unemployment to a myriad of individual situations.

once you quit thats it in most cases

[cdgoldilocks]

He quit because the pay became so low that we couldn't pay our basic bills, and his boss gave him impossible hours to seek additional part time work. Between his hourly duties and required on call time, he was required to be on duty for 60 hours a week. It was more than simply not being happy. He did the job for over a year while not being happy. When he quit, he couldn't pay bills because he was being paid $364 for being available to his boss for 120 hours. He had to be in uniform and within 20 minutes of the tow call should it come. He was on call every Sunday from 7am to Monday 8am. He slept MOnday. He worked Tues from 830 am to 1 pm. Wednesday from 830am to 1 pm. He worked Thursday from 830am to 1pm and then would come back and take call from 5pm Thursday to Friday at 8am. He would sleep Friday. Saturday would be his day off. Then back to Sunday call. The only money and steady hours he could count on were the Tues, Wed and Thurs hours, and toward the end, he would come home more around 12 instead fo 1pm because his boss would send him home early. He looked for work for months and applied for jobs before leaving. In January, he got an opportunity to go to truck driving school. I know the back story really doesn't matter, but it isn't like he simply got mad one day and quit. We had to make a decision.

I do very much appreciate the link. I think it will give my husband some "good cause" arguments to validate his position. I certainly hope he is back to work soon in a job where he can at least cover basics until he can secure employment. He has been applying for jobs and hopes to get hired soon.

I guess the question is, what does a "reasonable" person do in this situation?

[cep2535]

This is from CT's DOL. I don't know if its relevant for your state, but check your states DOL website. His cut in pay could be argued as lack of work. I mean hey he went from making 800 every 2 weeks to 350ish. Thats a drastic change in business if you ask me.

_________________________________________________
Approvable Job Separation

What is an approvable job separation?

If you file for Unemployment Compensation Benefits after quitting a job or being discharged (for reasons other than lack of work or job elimination), you must attend a hearing to determine eligibility for benefits.

If you QUIT your job, the purpose of the hearing is to give you an opportunity to establish that you had good cause attributable to the employer for quitting the job. There are very few non-job-related reasons for quitting under which you may be approved for benefits. These include quitting to care for a spouse, child, or parent with an illness or disability, and quitting because of a loss of transportation other than your own personally-owned vehicle, provided you are otherwise eligible. Keep in mind that you do have to be able and available for full-time work in order to be eligible for unemployment benefits.

If you RETIRE from your job, the purpose of the hearing is to give you an opportunity to establish that the retirement was not voluntary, or if it was, that your intent was not to withdraw from the labor market at the time you left the job. If the reason for the retirement is because the job has become unsuitable in light of your physical condition and the degree of risk to health and safety, you may be eligible for benefits provided you requested other work from the employer that was suitable and the employer did not offer you such work. If your separation was not voluntary, you would be eligible for benefits provided you are able and available for full-time work. In certain instances, a retirment will be treated as involuntary if the retirement was induced by the employer in an effort to close a facility or eliminate a worker's position, or if the worker reasonably believed the employment would be severed if he/she rejected the employer's inducement to retire. The portion of your pension benefits that relates to your employer's contribution is deducted from your Weekly Benefit Rate.

If you were DISCHARGED, the hearing will develop information to determine if the discharge was due to conduct in the course of employment which constituted deliberate misconduct, a single knowing violation of a reasonable and uniformly-enforced rule or policy, larceny of property or services whose value exceeded $25 or theft of currency of any value, or felonious conduct. If you were discharged for absenteeism, your employer must show that you were absent without either good cause for the absence or notice to the employer which you could have reasonably provided under the circumstances for three separate instances within a twelve month period.

[uitips]

cdgoldilocks, I just noticed that the links that were provided to you went to my website on unemployment benefits. If you are located in CA I think you should focus on what California says is good cause for quitting and there is no better resource for figuring out what that is in CA than their "Benefit Eligibility Determination Guide".

Additionally, I wonder why when your husbands hours and by virtue, his pay was reduced. he did not file a claim for partial unemployment benefits .. he certainly would have been able to collect partial benefits .. given the amount he began making every two weeks.

In the meantime .. since he was only working four hours a day .. he could have gone to school in his spare time.

There isn't much difference between what a person can bring home when collecting totally unemployed benefits and partial benefits .. except that partial benefits actually allow for making a little more because they disregard a specified amount of earnings before they start reducing the weekly benefit amount.

Of course there is also the difference that the state cannot deny benefits on the merits when you apply for partial benefits .. unlike what they almost always tend to do when a person voluntarily quits.

[cdgoldilocks]

Well, we didn't know you COULD draw partial unemployment initially. Then, when we were told we could file but probably wouldn't get it, my husband was afraid to rock the boat for fear of losing even more pay.

As for school, the days/nights/weekends didn't allow for it while employed there. He was expected to be in uniform and on duty for 60 hours a week,48 of that was commission only. He had to be within 20 minutes of the call, making school and/or part time employment impossible. Jobs are beyond slim here; hence my husband finally quitting and going to commerical truck driving school out of the area. Our town has little job training that can be done quickly.

[cdgoldilocks]

Oh, and if you look at the hours he was expected and did indeed work, he was unable to attend school except on Tues and wednesday from 130pm to night time if he left straight after work also, Monday afternoons after he slept from working til 8 am monday morning.