Appealing Unemployement Benefits - HELP

[y2k02c5]

What is the name of your state? MICHIGAN

I was let go from my job back in october 2003. I was at that job for 6 months. I was told I was being let go due to excessive abseentism. A written warning was given to me Sept 19th, 2003 approximately 1 week prior to being let go. In the letter it states that I would be put on a probation period till improvement occurs. I did not take any days off after the letter was given to me. I was then let go on Tuesday Sept 30th, 2003. I then filed for unemployment with our state.

I just recently rec'd a letter from our state's unemployment office stating that I am disqualified from receiving benefits due to excessive absenteeism.

My arguement is the following: When I was hired, we were informed that we do not get vacation until 1 year after employment. However, we did receive 5 sick days, that we were allowed to use as vacation days, since they would be lost and do not carry over. I utilized all 5 of these days.

In the beginning of august, i put in a request to take 10 days off for my honeymoon, august 18-29. I understood that these were unpaid days, and I had no issue with that. I was approved for these days as well. I took 5 vacation days and 13 unpaid days off, all which were preapproved.

Since they preapproved the time that I took off, how can this go against me to be considered excessive abseentism? I did not call in sick or skip work, at anytime. All time off requests were approved prior by the manager.

I am about to contact the Unemployment office to appeal their decision and ask for a redetermination of my case. I feel that I have a case here. As mentioned, all time off was pre approved. The employer could have simply denied the request. But they didn't. I feel that I was misled. On one hand they approved the time off, but on the other hand they state that its excessive absenteeism.

Any suggestions to plead my case are appreciated.

Thank you

 

[Beth3]

If I understand correctly, you took five sick days as vacation days, 10 unpaid days for your honeymoon, and 3 other days. What were those? How do you know you were "allowed" to use your five sick days as vacation days? Is that truly company policy or is that just the unofficial word among the workforce? Did you request permission from your supervisor to be off work each time you took one of those sick/vacation days?

18 days of absence within six months, especially for an employee who was new, is a lot of absence time but if all this time truly was specifically approved by your supervisor, then I'm surprised UC benefits are being denied.

 

[cbg]

I'm not. I've had an employee turned down for UC benefits on the basis of excessive absenteeism when I didn't even contest it. (Hey, the DET asked me; I told them. They made up their own minds.) Just because your supervisor approved the days, doesn't mean that upper managment agreed with his/her decision.

If you knew that you were going to be needing 10 days in August, then it wasn't a very good judgement call on your part to use all five of the available sick days before then, even if company policy did permit it. In my view, unless an employer offers 15 or more vacation days, then using a total of 18 days in a YEAR would be excessive, let alone using 18 days in 6 months.

 

[y2k02c5]

Beth3,

The day of orientation, the benefits administrator told us that we were allowed to use the 5 "sick" days as vacation days, without a need of a doctor's note. And yes, I put in a request each and everytime well in advance, just out of courtesy to them.