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HELP: NJ Unemployment Appeal

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cmrini22

Junior Member
I would appreciate your thoughts of me winning my UE appeal l. I was employed as a medical billing supervisor for a small company under 3 employees. I worked 35 hrs week and my boss was an absent boss I was the active supervisor running the business from open to close. I only had 1 other employee working aside me a few hours a day 3x a week. She contested my UE claim stating I voluntarily quit due to child care which is COMPLETLY FALSE. I was pregnant with my first child Jan '11 and my estranged father would constantly harass me at my place of employment. I would get various calls from him stating he was in the parking lot. I also worked alone most of the time which added more lack of security. There was several emails I had sent to my boss regarding the issue since I felt unsafe finishing the day on those days he would threaten me which I sent in to the Appeals Tribunal along with the restraining order i have against him. I came off maternity leave in Feb '12 and had asked my employer to give me changed hours that my father wouldn't know & as new mom there was no way I wanted to jeopardize my safety. She called me and left a voicemail that she cannot accommodate me. My appeals hearing is next week and would like to know the likelihood of me winning given I have all the proof.
Thanks for your time!
 


swalsh411

Senior Member
Not good. You attempted to dictate to your employer the terms of your employment which is not your right. If you refuse to work the hours available to you, then you voluntarily ended your employer. The "proof" you have will not help because your issue with your baby daddy is not your employer's problem. If he is breaking the restraining order, report him to the police.
 

csi7

Senior Member
Your safety as working alone is a strong factor, and just remember to stay calm, focused, professional during the hearing.

Do Not Respond to the employer during the hearing. When the hearing officer is speaking, listen closely and pay attention to the questions, statements, and ask for clarification if you do not understand what is being asked. When the employer is speaking, listen for the facts, stay calm, quiet.

Best wishes.
 

swalsh411

Senior Member
Your safety as working alone is a strong factor, and just remember to stay calm, focused, professional during the hearing.

Do Not Respond to the employer during the hearing. When the hearing officer is speaking, listen closely and pay attention to the questions, statements, and ask for clarification if you do not understand what is being asked. When the employer is speaking, listen for the facts, stay calm, quiet.

Best wishes.
What planet do you live on where an employee quitting because their employer refused to allow them to dictate their own schedule is good cause?
 

las365

Senior Member
What planet do you live on where an employee quitting because their employer refused to allow them to dictate their own schedule is good cause?
Planet Earth, apparently. This is from the New Jersey DOL website:

If you voluntarily quit your job without "good cause connected with the work," or if you voluntarily retire, you may be disqualified for benefits. "Good cause connected with the work," means that your reason for leaving must be directly related to your job and be so compelling that you had no choice but to leave the job. For example, a person quits work to move out of the area. While this is a good personal reason to quit, the reason for quitting is not connected with the work and the person would be disqualified.

There are exceptions to this disqualification. One exception may apply when the separation was related to or due to domestic violence.
 

davew128

Senior Member
Estranged father, restraining order, harassment in work place=domestic violence.
Tell me, did our OP actually suffer harm WHILE at work? Receiving phone calls at work saying EX is in the parking lot doesn't mean he WAS in the parking lot. If there was an actual problem at work, what remedies were requested of the employer to provide safety?

More importantly, if the guy is/was a serious problem, how long do you think it would take him to figure out OP's work schedule changed if he was still harassing her and possibly stalking her? A DAY??? Maybe?

Remember, we're talking about full time employment in a position that ordinarily gets done during normal daytime business hours. There's only so much an employer can do to accomodate an employee's request in that regard.
 

las365

Senior Member
I agree. But again, not why she quit. I see comprehension is not on the menu today.
The employer was not obligated to and didn't accommodate her request for changed hours - the request that she says was due to the domestic violence. She says she quit because of her fear for her safety - which was due to the domestic violence. What part of that are you having trouble comprehending?

This is not a wrongful termination case that requires the employer to have done something illegal for the employee to prevail. OP was not terminated for misconduct. Under the guideline from the NJ DOL that I quoted above, she may be eligible for benefits.

It is not an employer's responsibility to protect an employee from domestic violence. Nor should the employer and other employees be put at risk because of a violent person whose target is in the office. The exception I cited pertains to both of those issues, allowing a victim to quit his or her job and receive unemployment benefits anyway because the termination is not through any fault of their own.

I agree that it seems unlikely that a simple change in her hours would have thwarted her father. Even a poorly motivated and fairly dense stalker could probably figure out pretty easily that she still worked there. Which makes her voluntary termination due to fear for her safety because of domestic violence even more reasonable.

Now, if the employer has proof that OP quit due to child care issues, her chances go down. Way down. Like to probably zero.
 

swalsh411

Senior Member
OP's claim that her quit was good cause relies on her proving that the employer changing her work schedule would have somehow alleviated or lessened the domestic issue. I fail to see how she could meet that burden. How would changing her schedule have helped her?
 

cmrini22

Junior Member
Thanks for all your replies. FYI-Its not my "baby daddy" its my estranged deadbeat father. I was on maternity leave/Family leave for 5 months which Im sure already threw my father off to wonder if i was even working there anymore so before "voluntarily leaving" due to good cause I had hoped changing the hours would help. As these incidents occurred when I was working there my employer was notified in emails of when I had to come in late to report him to the police or when I felt I had to leave early as I felt my safety was in jeopardy. If i hadn't worked alone so much and had more co-workers I wouldn't feel the lack of security. IMO I honestly feel my boss ran the business 5 months without me and just decided to do it on her own and that was her way out! I do feel I should be entitled to my benefits or even partial due to NJ DOL "If you voluntarily quit your job without "good cause connected with the work," or if you voluntarily retire, you may be disqualified for benefits. "Good cause connected with the work," means that your reason for leaving must be directly related to your job and be so compelling that you had no choice but to leave the job. For example, a person quits work to move out of the area. While this is a good personal reason to quit, the reason for quitting is not connected with the work and the person would be disqualified.

There are exceptions to this disqualification. One exception may apply when the separation was related to or due to domestic violence.
 

swalsh411

Senior Member
I encourage you to appeal. I am just letting you know that you will bear the burden of proof of showing how this requested accomodation that your employer refused would help your problem.
 

commentator

Senior Member
Yes, while many states were putting this particular exception into their unemployment law, I did extensive research into this particular possible "good cause" reason to quit a job.

The law is pretty distinct about the employee having to have a good valid work related reason to quit the job. That the burden of proof when the employee quits the job, was not fired, but voluntarily quit, is on the employee to show this proof. That while most personal reasons are important to the person, they are not something that the employer is required to deal with. Therefore, losing your child care, your transportation, having to move from the area, not being a morning person, these are personal reasons for quitting the job, but not good enough to get you approved for unemployemnt. There was an exception made in the case of "domestic violence." Then the states with this exception had to sit down and figure out exactly what this statute means.

The issue of domestic violence is usually related to a person who is kept at home or who is held and prohibited from coming to work due to an abusive family member keeping them from coming, or holding them hostage. This can be interpreted as a "good personal reason" to quit the job, and also is an exception to personal reasons being non-approvable.

The proof you think you have about your father being abusive...which is peculiar at the get go, for how many adults with children and jobs are being stalked and abused by their father???? anyhow, this issue is going to be for the most part, related to exactly what you told the employer when telling them you could not come back to the job unless they agreed to your choice of schedule. Okay, you had been on maternity leave. You were returning from maternity leave. But when it was time for you to return, you told your employer what? You told them that you would need a whole new schedule? Did you tell them the reason, specifically that you were being stalked by your father, and that you felt that you would be safer if you had a different schedule?

I agree with others here, the changing of your schedule very likely would not deter your father very long. If you had a restraining order in force, where he was prohibited from harrassing you at work, what difference would it make if you worked evenings or mornings? How did you think this would be something that would keep you from being harrassed?

Did you, in any correspondence or any conversation that you had with them about your return to work, did you mention child care or baby sitting issues? Did you tell them that if they did not give you the hours and shifts you were asking for, you could not return to work?

What you are supposed to ask, in the case of an employee quitting the job is very important question: What did you do to try to resolve this situation BEFORE you quit the job? Or in your case refused to come back to work from maternity leave. Did you at any time attempt to explain this situation with your father to the employer, and ask them to agree to the new schedule to what? Keep you safe? Confuse your stalker? Or did you say I need this because it will be better for me related to my baby sitting issues. I agree with swalsh, it will be very hard for the OP to show that the change of schedule would have helped her stalking issues at all. There is not a question of whether or not she was the victim of domestic violence, it is whether her employer could have helped her remedy the situation. I agree it will be tough to show this.
When you go into the hearing, I wouldn't try to quote the law and tell them what is what. All you'll be telling them is what you told your employer, why you felt it was necessary to quit the job, what you did to try to resolve the issue before finding it necessary to quit....If your employer did not fire you, then you are the one who refused to come back to work, she asked you to. And you refused because....?

Let us know how it works out.
 
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LdiJ

Senior Member
The proof you think you have about your father being abusive...which is peculiar at the get go, for how many adults with children and jobs are being stalked and abused by their father????
You would actually be amazed at just how often that happens. There are a whole lot of parents out there who cannot stand losing control of their adult children.
 

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