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Employment benefits being contested

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cotting07

Junior Member
Located in Iowa.
I was terminated from my position due to making a clerical error. When the error was brought to my attention I personally went to my supervisor and asked if anything I can do to resolve issue or how will be handled. I was informed for the next 7 days after reaching out to my supervisor daily that it was unknown to her what outcome will be and that again there was nothing I can do but wait and continue to report to work. I continued to work at my same position doing same duties until the end of 7 day was informed I was being terminated. This was about 4 weeks ago and today I received a notice that my previous employer is contesting my benefits. The employee handbook clearly states I was involuntarily terminated in this situation. Would unemployment rule in my favor to continue benefits while I search for a new position?
 


W

Willlyjo

Guest
Located in Iowa.
I was terminated from my position due to making a clerical error. When the error was brought to my attention I personally went to my supervisor and asked if anything I can do to resolve issue or how will be handled. I was informed for the next 7 days after reaching out to my supervisor daily that it was unknown to her what outcome will be and that again there was nothing I can do but wait and continue to report to work. I continued to work at my same position doing same duties until the end of 7 day was informed I was being terminated. This was about 4 weeks ago and today I received a notice that my previous employer is contesting my benefits. The employee handbook clearly states I was involuntarily terminated in this situation. Would unemployment rule in my favor to continue benefits while I search for a new position?
I believe it is pretty safe to say that you will get your UI benefits! Even if benefits are denied, most of the time, you will be accepted on appeal and get retroactive benefits. Just remember, if denied (which I don't think it will be) you must appeal!
 

Hot Topic

Senior Member
Located in Iowa.
I was terminated from my position due to making a clerical error. When the error was brought to my attention I personally went to my supervisor and asked if anything I can do to resolve issue or how will be handled. I was informed for the next 7 days after reaching out to my supervisor daily that it was unknown to her what outcome will be and that again there was nothing I can do but wait and continue to report to work. I continued to work at my same position doing same duties until the end of 7 day was informed I was being terminated. This was about 4 weeks ago and today I received a notice that my previous employer is contesting my benefits. The employee handbook clearly states I was involuntarily terminated in this situation. Would unemployment rule in my favor to continue benefits while I search for a new position?



No one can tell you with absolute certainty that the unemployment department will rule in your favor. A lot depends on the circumstances of the termination. Being terminated for making one error seems like an overreaction, but we have no way of knowing what damage the error may have caused the company or your history with the company. Contacting your supervisor daily wasn't a good idea. From what I've read, it doesn't appear that the employee handbook has to be regarded as "law."
 

Beth3

Senior Member
Would unemployment rule in my favor to continue benefits while I search for a new position? . Very likely. Unless your employer can demonstrate you purposefully screwed things up (as opposed to making an honest mistake), then you will be eligible for UC benefits. Assuming your employer is unable to do so, then their contesting your benefits is a waste of everyone's time. Making an honest mistake is not grounds for the State to deny UC benefits.
 

commentator

Senior Member
May be a waste of time, but they definitely have the right to do so and I would encourage you or anyone else involved to file an appeal if you are denied.As I always told people, we get paid whether or not you file this appeal, you have a legal right to it, and so go on and do it. Likewise, I'd never tell anyone, Oh yes, you are 100% guaranteed that you're going to win this one!" Because there are always a few differentials we might not be aware of that could be thrown into the mix.

But if your employer cannot show that they had a valid misconduct reason to terminate you, then they have very little chance of overturning your initial decision approving benefits. That you had been there for a while, that you had been performing the job adequately, that you had no indication that if you made one mistake, your job was in jeopardy, all those things are in your favor. If they are going to fire you, they need to show progressive discipline, in other words, they told you they were not liking the way you performed your job, you were told to shape up, and you deliberately decided not to do it, you screwed up again.

As someone said, "I did my job to the best of my ability" is your mantra. There is no misconduct in making a mistake one time......unless it was something that you knew was going to get you fired if you did it. If you embezzled, say, transferred thirty thousand dollars from their account to your personal account, that's a one time mistake which no reasonable person would not expect to be fired for. That's what they'd call gross misconduct. They probably will not approve your benefits if you made a one time mistake like that.

Just describe what happened to you. Why you were terminated, what you were told by your company. Repeat over and over "I always did the job to the best of my ability. I did not know my job was jeopardy. I did not want to lose my job."

Good luck to you, let us know how it works out.
 

tranquility

Senior Member
I'm still waiting on how a clerical error would result in a company, after a week consideration, deciding to terminate the employee. Was the error on your hours submission? On an expense reimbursement?

I'm not doubting the OP, I just want to help put things in perspective. Was this a 6 rather than a 9 and hurt the company, or did the error inure benefit to the OP?
 

Sockeye

Member
I know of an AP clerk that deposited a check into the wrong account, one simple error on his part (just 1 number off!) but it cost him his job.

I'm sure he collected UI benefits though.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
That the poster hasn't responded could indicate that the error was a lot more serious than s/he let on.
I was thinking along those lines as well. Employers do not fire good employees for simple, easily correctable clerical errors. Even if the error did not benefit the employee, if it caused the employer a serious problem, it could be a valid reason for a termination.

About 30 years ago I worked for a timeshare exchange company. I won't mention the company because its quite large now and well known. We made a contract with a company in Italy to make seaside villas available for timeshare exchanges. Although I was NOT upper level management I did have some oversight on the contract. The contract went through like 12 revisions and the contract I approved had a certain price for offseason units, with a specific cancellation date. However the contract that got signed assigned high season rates to those offseason units. I discovered it well after the fact but wasn't worried because the off season units were not popular and we ended up cancelling nearly all of them well within the deadlines.

A few months later I gave notice and went to work elsewhere. I brought that particular issue to the attention of my manager before I left...along with a spreadsheet showing that the impact to the company was miniscule...a few hundred dollars on a 6 figure contract. I later heard through the grapevine that that contract had become a huge issue within the company (which made no sense since the impact was miniscule) and that the only way my manager avoided being fired was to blame it on me and to not acknowledge that I had brought it to her attention. I might have been fired had I still been working for them at the time. A clerical error on a contract could have been a huge issue...even if two or three levels of management above me should have reviewed the contract and caught the error. I would have been the "fall guy".

Anyway, my point is that a clerical error may or may not have a big impact on a company...and lower level management employees can be the "fall guys" for upper level management who didn't read what they were signing.
 

OHRoadwarrior

Senior Member
Years ago, one of my lower employees was terminated by the powers that be, for forgetting to take one of two bank deposits to the bank and leaving it in the safe over night.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
Years ago, one of my lower employees was terminated by the powers that be, for forgetting to take one of two bank deposits to the bank and leaving it in the safe over night.
Yeah, but that's not a "clerical" error. That is a proceedural error..
 

commentator

Senior Member
In an effort to avoid paying additional unemployment insurance taxes, I have seen many employers fire employees for small clerical errors. Thankfully, they do not have the total say on the issue, as far as whether or not they have a good misconduct reason to fire employees. If there was a standard procedure for dealing with the bank deposits and the employee "knew" that violating those procedures would result in severe penalties, that might fly as gross misconduct. But actually, it's quite common when a place of work wants to get rid of an employee for any of many reasons, they said, "Okay, you misspelled that client's name on the correspondence, you're outta here!"
 

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