Just want a devil's advocate

[stfrancis93]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Illinois

I worked for 4 months for a large (5000+) employees in the Chicago Suburbs. I missed one day (with a doctor's approval), and left early 1 day when my mom had a heart attack, for which I was given a verbal warning, prior to the incident which led to my termination. The incident was that on a Friday morning I was at work when I got sharp pains to the point I was crying. I left work, but before leaving, offered to get a doctor's note for my supervisor, and she told me not to. I then returned to work the next day, with 800 mg. of Ibuprofen every 4 hours by doctor's orders. I went to work on Monday, then Tuesday, the pain was still going on, so I called in again, and called my doctor. Through a referral, a specialist found out that I had miscarried, when I didn't even know I was pregnant!

That night, my friend from work called me and told me that he heard my supervisor discussing my termination. I returned to work on Friday (missed only two days of work due to a wacky work schedule), and Saturday, and Monday. Monday, 9/20, I was terminated. I immediately filed for unemployment.

I needed to have a phone hearing due to termination, and was awarded unemployment compensation. I found a new job on 10/25. I then found out that on 11/17 (outside the 30 days req. by state) that the company is filing an appeal. I went through the phone hearing, and won the case then by the judge. They are now filing a second appeal.

Here is my question to those who have made it this far. Why? In Illinois, they will not award a terminated employee U/C for willful misconduct. How can they prove that this was willful misconduct? Why do they insist on fighting this so long? Can they come after me personally if they lose the 2nd appeal? Thanks for any words that you have to help me understand this.

Happy New Year!!

Michelle

 

[SuzieWahoozie]

Why? Why what? What is your question? Why are they continuing to appeal? Because they can! They have to protect their interests just as you want to protect yours.

How can they prove this is willful misconduct? Without knowing all the facts, I can't answer you, but I will tell you this, I have been an HR Director/Consultant in the Chicago-area (including the south suburbs) for over 20 years and I can tell you that employees - especially new employees - who are consistently absent are seen as willfully choosing to stay away from work. Now, the "saving grace" you may have is UI only looks at the last incident when making their determination, and since you claim to have been under a doctor's care and have prescriptions, etc., you may be safer, but I hope you have some type of doctor's statement proving you did go to see him on every day you were absent due to the last occurrence of illness.

Why do they insist on fighting this so long? Because they have to pay into the UI fund, and like all insurance they pay more if they have too many "claims" paid. It costs them money when you (or any other former employee) gets UI. And it costs ALOT of money.

Can they come after me personally if they lose the 2nd appeal? No. If they want to continue to appeal, they appeal to the unemployment Board of Appeals. Their beef will be with IDES, not you. And my guess is they will quit if they don't win this time (and it will be hard to win since they have aleady lost twice). Continuing appeals after this - to the Appeals Board - will begin to cost them money as they will probably need legal representation. It gets more and more like a "court of law" after this point...and in some cases can actually escalate to court. They will probably let it go after this round, but you never know. Sometimes they have attorneys on staff who have nothing better to do.