This is a tough call. They didn't fire you. You didn't sign that you were
declining work. In fact, as long as you didn't say, "No, I'm not going to
work and I'm going home." They will probably say you declined work. If they
have enough witnesses swear that you did, indeed, decline work and went home
because you were declining work, you have a problem. But you should insist
that you did not decline work; you only disagreed about the assignment and
your boss sent you home. Also... talk with other laid-off workers and see if
something similar occurred to them; your employer may be using this as a
rouse to get out of paying unemployment on everyone; and other may be
willing to band with you on the subject.
You should have filed for unemployment right off the bat, though. Each state
is different, so check with your local unemployment office in case this
scenario ever arises against. In Ohio, an employer cannot tell you that you
are "on-call" to keep you from filing unemployment. I once had an employer
tell me that I wasn't laid-off, I was just a part-time worker without hours.
That doesn't fly. You are either 1) working or 2) not working. If you are
not working, you are either 1) laid-off or 2) fired. Either way, you have
the right to file for unemployment and have a decision made about whether
you will receive it or not. You can even file for unemployment when you quit
a job if you quit for certain reasons: employer asking you to do something
illegal, etc. You may want to check that out with your local unemployment
people.
JB
"No One" <noone@ptd.net> wrote in message
news:eqpQa.425$lL.50085@nnrp1.ptd.net...
I tried to file my unemployment claim for the last two weeks and it went
through, although I was told I needed to provide additional information in
order for the claim to be processed. Now i'm worried.
On Wednesday, June 25, three people were sent home due to lack of work.
The
manager told us to "call back everyday" to see if there was work. Over the
next few days I called in and asked for work, but there was none. The
manager would not tell us whether or not we were being laid off
completely,
to claim partial, or what.
I called the Human Resources Rep that week and complained that the manager
would not tell us what was going on, and also that i was mad that the 4
remaining people on 2nd shift had all been there for a shorter time than
me
(and the other two people that were laid off). On Monday, I finally got a
call back from this human resources person.
We had a three way call between the human resources person, the manager,
and
me. The manager stated there was no work that day, and the reasons why
those
other people were left (they were using different machines, blah blah
blah).
But the manager also agreed to "call me" when there was suitable work. I
was
happy with this call and thanked her for explaining this to me and the
result was fine.
About 20 minutes later, I get a call from the manager telling me to come
in
tonight to work on a machine. I was happy they finally had more work. So,
I
go in and clock in. 5 minutes pass before the manager and her "lead" (a
person that's been there much less time than me, but gets preferencial
work
because she's in a relationship with the manager's sister... yes, lesbians
holding hands at work, lol) appear and begin to train me on this machine
i'd
never worked on before. I was trained very rudely, fast, and I had no idea
what I was doing. I asked the "lead" where the person was who worked on
this
machine for the past 7-8 weeks. I was then told "you're here in place of
him." I was like WTF? I was not told this, I was told to come in to work
because there was finally work.
So I go into the manager's office immediately and told her that she did
not
tell me the truth about which machine i'd be working on (I had no clue how
to use this machine), that i'd be taking someone's job and that I was
being
treated extremely rudely by "the lead."). So the manager calls the human
resources person and she tells me to "go back to work." I told her that
no,
I'm not qualified to use this equipment and never agreed to this or to
take
someone's job. The she told me to write a paper saying that I declined
work:
I have course said no, I'm not declining any work I've worked for you for
two years adn this just isn't right. THEN, the guy that has worked on that
machine for 7-8 weeks shows up at work, and enters the building! They
obviously didn't tell him about this. So the manager and I go to the
timeclock and talk about the situation. It was not comfortable at all.
The manager tells this guy to clock in and tells him to go to his machine.
He clocks in. She allows me to clock out and tells me that "they're
getting
another machine in a few days" and that she'll call me if there is any
work.
To date she has not called me. The next day I filed my initial
unemployment
claim and to date I've received no phone call as to there being work.
That's the story. I don't think, if the employer attempts to block the
unemployment, that they'll be successful. There is a timeclock record of
the
other employee clocking in at 4:45 pm, and me clocking out right after.
There was no enough work for both of us. The manager made that decision,
and
let me leave without signing any paper. I would not sign any paper anyway.
She lied to me about what work i'd be doing, never informed the other dude
he'd be losing his job, and gave me inadequate training on this new
machine.
What do you think?
.
