Unemployment Benefits Archives

EL SEGUNDO, CA (October 6, 2011)—Chris Adishian, President of the Adishian Law Group in El Segundo, CA and an expert in employment law was recently quoted in an article appearing in Lawyers.com regarding a case where workers who quit were still eligible to receive unemployment benefits.

In most states, in order to be eligible for unemployment insurance, the employee must be fired for other than gross misconduct. Typically, employees who quit their job for a reason other than good cause created by the employer are ineligible for unemployment benefits. However, the article points out, in practically every state a worker who voluntarily quits for a good reason or good cause created by the employer, can get unemployment benefits. Good cause generally includes, intolerable or detrimental working conditions. To read the complete article “Workers ‘Forced’ To Quit Get Unemployment Benefits” please click the following link to see the October 6, 2011 post at Laywers.com: “Workers ‘Forced’ To Quit Get Unemployment Benefits.”

Says Adishian, “It’s similar to the test often used in constructive discharge cases. In California, the test for a constructive discharge is generally stated as whether a reasonable person in the employee’s shoes and faced with the alleged intolerable conditions would have felt compelled to resign. A constructive discharge is the legal equivalent to a termination or firing.” Explains Adishian, “Intolerable conditions may include instances when an employer creates false requirements in order for an employee to keep her job; or a supervisor continually yells and screams unfair and harsh criticism along with threats of termination; or an extended campaign intended to get an employee fired.” Adishian advises that the factors to be considered include demotion, salary reduction, reduction in job responsibilities, reassignment to menial work, reassignment to work under a more junior person, employer harassment and even offers of retirement or continued employment on less favorable terms.

For nearly a decade, Adishian Law Group has advised high earning professionals and Companies regarding the complex, and high stakes area of California employment law. Their services include negotiating and interpreting contracts as well as resolving disputes through mediation, arbitration and litigation.

About Lawyers.com. Lawyers.com is web property associated with legal industry vendors LexisNexis® and Martindale-Hubbell®. It is a leading legal destination on the web, providing consumers and small business professionals the information they need about specific legal issues.

About Adishian Law Group, P.C.

Adishian Law Group is a California law firm with a statewide practice in the areas of Corporate law, Employment law, Real Estate law and Mediation Services. Adishianlaw.com is one of the oldest continually operating law firm websites on the Internet. The firm serves its clientele via three offices located in the major business hubs of El Segundo, Palo Alto and San Francisco. As of March 2013, Adishian Law Group, P.C. has represented individual and corporate clients located across 20 California counties, 4 States outside of California and 9 foreign countries — in over 340 legal matters.

For more information about this topic or to speak with Chris Adishian:

Have you been fired from your job? Were you laid off? Did you file for unemployment? Did your employer contest your right to receive benefits? Have you been denied benefits? Are you entitled to benefits?

Sometimes companies fire an employee, and then contest the employee’s right to receive unemployment benefits. Companies are entitled to contest a terminated employees access to unemployment benefits in certain instances, but in some cases companies abuse this process by contesting unemployment benefits in bad faith, effectively adding insult to economic injury.

Under California law, an employee is disqualified from receiving benefits if and only if he has either:

(a)

cheap cialis online no prescription

left his most recent work voluntarily without good cause; or

(b) has been fired for misconduct connected with his most recent work (Unemployment Insurance Code, §1256).

“Misconduct connected with recent work” is a substantial breach by the employee of an important duty or obligation owed to the employer, willful or wanton in character, and tending to injure the employer (Maywood Glass Co. v. Stewart(1959)).

Accordingly, mere inefficiency, unsatisfactory conduct, or poor performance as the result of inability or incapacity, isolated instances of ordinary negligence or inadvertence, or good faith errors in judgment or discretion do not constitute misconduct, and cannot legally serve as justifications for denial of benefits. For example, even a single instance of an offensive remark to an employer, attributable to hotheadedness rather than deliberation, is not misconduct (Silva v. Nelson (1973) 31 Cal.App.3d 136).

If you have been terminated by your employer and denied benefits, you should contact an attorney to discuss your rights. Denials are can be appealed but you must act quickly.

[Case References: Maywood Glass Co. v. Stewart (1959) 170 Cal.App.2d 719; Silva v. Nelson (1973) 31 Cal.App.3d 136]

[CA Statute Reference: Unemployment Insurance Code, §1256]

About Adishian Law Group, P.C.

For more information about this topic or to speak with Chris Adishian: