Sacramento Employment Lawyer

Unemployment Benefits and Good Cause Resignation

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Recently, I had represented an employee at a hearing in front of the unemployment appeals board in Contra Costa County. She was a hard worker, who was an unfortunate victim of the timing of certain events in her employment that lead to the denial of her employment benefits, which is a lesson to other employees who may find themselves in a similar situation.  

The employee held two jobs: one full time and the other one was a part time position. Having worked 60 hours per week without any days off, the employee has made the decision to quit her part time employment and keep her full time job. On day A, she gave her part time employer a two-week notice of resignation and has informed the part time employer than she will resign on date C. A week from Date A (let's call that date - Date B), the employee was unexpectedly laid off from her full time position. The employee continued working at her part time job for a week from Date B till Date C - which was the last date of her employment as per her resignation notice. When the employee applied for benefits, she was formally denied, because she actually voluntarily quit her last place of employment (her part-time job), and from the EDD's standpoint, the fact that she was laid off a week before by her full-time employer and would have clearly qualified for benefits, had that employer was her last employer and had she not continued working for her part time employer after the lay-off did not make a difference. 

At the appeal hearing, the administrative law judge emphasized the rule that an employee is not entitled to benefits if he voluntarily quits his last employment, unless there is good cause. As I expected, the main issue on appeal was whether the employee invested sufficient effort into rescinding her resignation and trying to keep her part-time job after she was laid of from her full time employment. The main question was whether the employee approached her part-time employer and asked whether she could continue working or, if her position was already filled, apply or hold another position or a different shift at the same position. 

In this case, the employee did not sufficiently inquire into her ability to continue working for her part-time employer. Even though I argued that it is usually embarrassing and uncomfortable for an employee to ask for her job back after resigning, I don't think the judge was impressed by that argument and I expect that he will affirm the denial of unemployment benefits.

Appealing Unemployment Compensation Benefits Denial

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It is not uncommon for an employer to fight the terminated employee's right to unemployment benefits, especially if the termination was contentious and involved personal animosity. The law is clear that the otherwise eligible employee can be only disqualified from benefits if he voluntarily quits or if he was terminated for "misconduct." There is usually no dispute over whether the employee quit on his own or was forced out. However, whether the termination was for "misconduct" has been a subject of dispute on many, if not most, appeal hearing at the unemployment appeals board. Under the unemployment insurance code, "misconduct" is a term of art that means more than an ordinary negligence or less than satisfactory performance. To be disqualified from unemployment benefits, the employee's misconduct must be somewhat severe or willful, such as substantial and intentional deviation from the company''s policy, theft, threats of violence, harassment and alike. 

Also, the termination must be causally linked to misconduct. In other words, an employer should not prevail on appeal if the employer's argument is that an employee was terminated for misconduct that took place a while before termination, as this does not establish that the employee was terminated because of misconduct (temporal proximity of misconduct and termination is an important element of the employer's case). Misconduct leads to immediate termination, and if the termination is delayed and takes place a while after "misconduct," the appeals board will rightfully suspect that the employee was terminated for reasons other than misconduct, and will award an employee the benefits.