labor board appeal letter draft

[jaysway]

Hey guys...im Jeremy from Louisiana

I have to write a letter to the workforce for my unemployment...I was seeing if someone could give me a review on it. I posted the incident in the forum a couple of weeks ago. Heres my letter on what happened. Any advice is helpful.

i changed the names also...and its just a draft guys


To whom in may concern,

My name is Jeremy Robinson. I have recently filed an unemployment claim, for being discharged from my work. I received a letter today, Novemeber 25, 2009, stating there is a possible issue on my claim about separation from employment or availability. I prepared this letter today, to state the facts on my side of the claim.


I was approached by way of telephone, 11-13-2009, by bb(owner), asking me to present myself at ExamOne for a urine analysis, which i did. On Monday, 11-16-2009, I showed up for work and was met by bb. bb then informed me that there was allegations that I had been using "dope" on the job. I denied every allegation, and was sent home pending the urine analysis test results. That evening I conacted bb, and at that time was informed that I passed the urine analysis. I was accused of "taking some pills to alter the test results", by bb. bb then requested I take a blood test. I informed him I have a phobia of needles, and that I have no reason to keep defending myself against slander. He told me in order to keep my job, I have to pass the blood test. I showed up at ExamOne on 11-17-2009 to give a blood sample. When the lady pulled out the needle i started getting really dizzy, and informed her I couldn't let her put a needle in my arm. I called bb and let him know that because of my phboia of needles, I couldn't let her do the bloodwork. He fired me.

I've worked at this company since Q4 2007. When i was hired in, I never signed a company drug/alcohol policy. There is no company drug/alcohol policy. I was fired for not taking a blood test, that would of put me in immediate medical danger. Because of my phobia, I pass out when a needle is put in me. I passed the urine analysis, and since the detection times for narcotics is far lesser in blood than in urine, a blood test would of proved nothing. When I proved that the allegations were untrue and unjust, they tried to invade my privacy by requesting a blood test. I've been fired in a tough economic time, and now that my good clean name has been tarnished, its that much harder to find a decent job. I have no history of drug usage.

 

[Hot Topic]

The repeated misspellings show you as a person unwilling to present a professional defense. What you should concentrate on now is content; the spelling should already be accurate.

You say that when the lady pulled the needle out, you started getting dizzy. You then say that you told her you couldn't let her put a needle in your arm. That's confusing. Where did she put the first needle in and why?

If you have to take a blood test, you tell the person administering it that you have a phobia of needles and could pass out. Precautions can then be taken.
I wouldn't accept that as an excuse for refusing the test.

 

[jaysway]

The repeated misspellings show you as a person unwilling to present a professional defense. What you should concentrate on now is content; the spelling should already be accurate.

You say that when the lady pulled the needle out, you started getting dizzy. You then say that you told her you couldn't let her put a needle in your arm. That's confusing. Where did she put the first needle in and why?

If you have to take a blood test, you tell the person administering it that you have a phobia of needles and could pass out. Precautions can then be taken.
I wouldn't accept that as an excuse for refusing the test.

Hey hot topic....thanks for the reply

It was just a draft, I didn't even type it in word, I used notepad. I will make sure the spelling is right in the final copy.

And I was refering to when the nurse pulled the needle out of the drawer. I just didn't feel a needle in the arm was worth the grief it would cause me just to prove what was already proven. I didn't know they'd take precautions either.

 

[commentator]

Forget all this letter writing! I can never recall a situation where a person filing a claim was supposed to write a letter to anybody for any reason to argue their case. My former English students would be so SOL if this were the case! It would be discriminatory to the less educated and would require them to hire someone to compose letters for them. This is not what is supposed to happen!

What you have received is a notice that your claim is being investigated. You should have received a letter telling you you were monetarily eligible for benefits, and that if approved you could draw $XX amount of money for XX amount of weeks. This was your monetary decision. They told you to begin making your weekly certifications.Keep doing this each week. If you win an appeal, you would be back paid for each week you filed for.

If you have not received an initial approval or denial decision, they have a whole series of questions to ask you, theirs, not yours, not necessarily the ones you touched on in your letter, and therefore you must talk directly to them. Any letter you receive at this point in the claim should tell you who to contact or tell you when they will be contacting you. You can't get around talking to them and answering their questions by presenting a letter of your own creation.

If your last communication says, 'Your claim is denied. If you wish to appeal this decision please contact this department by 00/00/0000" you send back in something that says, "I wish to appeal this decision! I wish to request a hearing in person (or by telephone). " At no time are you required to compose an elegant and correctly spelled document stating your case.

A document such as you have created here might be of some use to you if you are sitting in your house doing a hearing on the telephone. You might use the points in this letter to tell your side of the story. But DO NOT send this in to them. When you appeal, you are not submitting your appeal final statement, you are simply requesting a hearing. The unemployment office will operate the appeal process the way they are required to, ask the questions THEY need to ask to reach a decision following unemployment law.

That said, let's address the issues of your case. Begin any appeal statement that you make by saying that you have worked at this company for xx number of years, without a problem. That you were never asked to sign a drug policy or given material concerning a drug policy and were not aware there was one in place, have never seen such a policy evoked on another employee.

Incidentally, did anyone in your company know about your "needle phobia" before this incident? It sounds a lot like they wanted to get rid of you, and used the knowledge that you would probably refuse a blood test as a venue to do so. Of course, you can't prove this, but what you are really trying to establish is that you were discharged for no misconduct on your part, no trail of discipline and through no fault of your own. Was it legal for them to do this to you? Certainly. Invasion of privacy? Stow that argument. Can you get approved for benefits? Maybe.

Also, tell what happened in a logical progression, including that you passed the urine test, that you were told they thought you had taken something to change the test results, were told you were to be forced to take a blood test, that you cooperated with this and went in to take the test. This is big. Then that you grew faint and almost passed out when they started to draw your blood. So you had to refuse the test. Lay off the "needle phobia" deal as much as you can, because frankly, this is sort of thought of as "drug test phobia" and is by no means a recognized illness, or a condition they would ever take seriously in an unemployment hearing situation. Emphasize that you went in to take the blood test, became faint, had no one to drive you home....so you cooperated up to the fullest extent you could. Then you were told you were being terminated for.....? Refusing the blood test, or smoking dope on the job, or what? What did your boss say when he fired you?

Stress to the people at the unemployment office that you did your job to the best of your abilities, that you did not want to lose your job, that you did not ever have an issue with drugs on the job, had never been warned or even questioned about drug use on the job, that your drug testing, which you did voluntarily submit to up till you became ill, showed no drugs in your system, with reason, as you do not use drugs.

State that you are fully able and available for full time work, that you would be happy to submit to any sort of drug testing required for a new job.(incidentally, there is nothing in any law anywhere that says you can excuse yourself from receiving required tests or injections because you have needle phobia.)

Also knock off the pity party of "they deprived me of my job at a time when the economy is bad and they violated my privacy and hurt my feelings." This is wasted breath. Be professional. You're not Clarence Darrow trying to get the jury to sway. The claim will be decided on whether or not there was documented misconduct on your part.

It would need to be gross misconduct too, since there was no history of discipline. The company would need to have witnesses to your drug use on the job, or it would need to be caught on camera. And/or they would need to have a clear and well documented drug testing policy that says that each person who passes a urinalysis test must also then submit to a blood test.

Which means I think you have a fairly good chance. I bet very strongly that you do NOT need to send these people this letter. Any letter you send them might be entered into evidence, and frankly, you do not need this letter or something like it in evidence, you need to tell your story in response to the process.

 

[jaysway]

Hi commentator, thank you for reply on this thread as well.

Yes I got the letter yesterday and that's what it basically said, was that the claim was under investigation. My whole thing is I was never given a reason for termination, so I don't know what the UI office is being told by the former employer. I was just trying to defend myself. I will delete the letter and forget about it.

I'm going to read your post a few times, and take some notes and make sure I know what I have to say. Ill lay off the needle phobia and pitty party. I've never hard to deal with issues like this, and I do get carried away at times. My fault.

Anyway, any further advice you have commentator will be taken and much appreciated, and I will make sure I keep the situation up to date in the forum. Thank you, and happy thanksgiving to you.

 

[commentator]

Good! The whole thing is, you don't worry about what the other side is saying. They may say they caught you flushing needles down the toilet after you injected yourself in the bathroom at work! But the thing is, you set up your side of the story, and you keep presenting your side as what happened, politely and professionally.

They have this assumption that either side, either the employer or the employee (or both) could be lying. So you do not need to accomodate their story. Just present your story and stick to it. If they say something totally squirrelly when the ajudicator talks to them, something you did not mention, they'll call you back and say, "Oh yes,what about the needle flushing incident last month?" and at that point, you will be able to deny it.

Make sure you file everything timely, and that you keep certifying for weeks until your claim is approved or denied in the last appeal.

 

[jaysway]

Okay, I see what your saying...just stick to my side of the events. I have the drug screen results, the consent for the urine analysis, and a letter from the lab saying I showed up and refused blood test. Should I use these documents? If so what other documents will be helpful?

 

[jaysway]

And one more thing commentator....

I was never given a reason for be fired, I called him and informed him I almost passed out, all he said was "you cant work for me then". I recorded that conversation with him.

 

[commentator]

I'm assuming you're in your initial appeal here. This means you'll be talking to an ajudicator very soon. When you do, tell them that you have this paperwork. Ask them if you need to fax it to them.

I am not really sure of the legality of taping the conversation in your state, and it's not a big thing anyhow at this point, just tell the ajudicator exactly what the employer said. Don't even mention that you have it on tape.

As I've said, don't make a big whoop out of your "needle phobia." But say that when they began to try to draw your blood (and be sure and mention that you did go in willing to try, and they did actually try for blood) you got very faint and began to feel very sick. You don't have to say that you KNEW this would happen because you have needle phobia or that you told your employer you couldn't have a blood test because you would have needle phobia or anything. Just say you got very faint and could not continue.

Be sure and bring up any previous write ups for performance or problems that had been mentioned to you related to drug abuse or poor job performance (which might possibly be construed as poor performance based on drug use.)
If there were NO previous write ups or verbal warnings about performance or drug use, be sure to bring out this fact.

Any other issues, like tardiness or absenteeism or anything else you do not mention in this venue. Keep it about the issue at hand. If you have copies of any of the company handbooks or policies, it would be good to tell the ajudicator you have them. If you were not given a company handbook and were never told about drug testing policies, that'd be good to mention too.

If the initial appeal is denied, you will be given an opportunity to appeal at a hearing with both you and the employer present. If you are approved, your employer may appeal, or he may not, depending on how good a case he thinks he has. Either way, you may need to go back over all this and produce all the evidence in paper. So don't throw away your notes. Good luck. Keep us informed.

 

[jaysway]

I'm assuming you're in your initial appeal here. This means you'll be talking to an ajudicator very soon. When you do, tell them that you have this paperwork. Ask them if you need to fax it to them.

I am not really sure of the legality of taping the conversation in your state, and it's not a big thing anyhow at this point, just tell the ajudicator exactly what the employer said. Don't even mention that you have it on tape.

As I've said, don't make a big whoop out of your "needle phobia." But say that when they began to try to draw your blood (and be sure and mention that you did go in willing to try, and they did actually try for blood) you got very faint and began to feel very sick. You don't have to say that you KNEW this would happen because you have needle phobia or that you told your employer you couldn't have a blood test because you would have needle phobia or anything. Just say you got very faint and could not continue.

Be sure and bring up any previous write ups for performance or problems that had been mentioned to you related to drug abuse or poor job performance (which might possibly be construed as poor performance based on drug use.)
If there were NO previous write ups or verbal warnings about performance or drug use, be sure to bring out this fact.

Any other issues, like tardiness or absenteeism or anything else you do not mention in this venue. Keep it about the issue at hand. If you have copies of any of the company handbooks or policies, it would be good to tell the ajudicator you have them. If you were not given a company handbook and were never told about drug testing policies, that'd be good to mention too.

If the initial appeal is denied, you will be given an opportunity to appeal at a hearing with both you and the employer present. If you are approved, your employer may appeal, or he may not, depending on how good a case he thinks he has. Either way, you may need to go back over all this and produce all the evidence in paper. So don't throw away your notes. Good luck. Keep us informed.

Thank you for all your help commentator. It is really appreciated...I'll make sure I keep the situation up-to-date.....as im interested in the results of this one myself.

 

[ecmst12]

Did I miss something, or you haven't even gotten a DENIAL yet, just a notice that they are investigating???

 

[commentator]

That's what I'm assuming. That this person has not gotten the initial decision approving or denying benefits. That is the first one done, where if this is not a simple lack of work claim, someone will talk to the claimant, get their statement, then talk to the employer, possibly get back to the claimant to clear up any confusions and then a first decision is made,. This first decision is supposed to be done within a certain time frame according to federal standards (approximately 21 days is good) In other words, they're not supposed to let someone languish for weeks without hearing whether they are going to receive unemployment benefits or not. Though it certainly happens.

That's why it would have been so disastrous for this person to fire off a letter which answered none of the necessary questions and dealt with nothing relevant, really. It would really slow up the process.

 

[jaysway]

That's what I'm assuming. That this person has not gotten the initial decision approving or denying benefits. That is the first one done, where if this is not a simple lack of work claim, someone will talk to the claimant, get their statement, then talk to the employer, possibly get back to the claimant to clear up any confusions and then a first decision is made,. This first decision is supposed to be done within a certain time frame according to federal standards (approximately 21 days is good) In other words, they're not supposed to let someone languish for weeks without hearing whether they are going to receive unemployment benefits or not. Though it certainly happens.

That's why it would have been so disastrous for this person to fire off a letter which answered none of the necessary questions and dealt with nothing relevant, really. It would really slow up the process.

Correct. I received a letter stating there is a possible issue, and claim can't be payed at this time. It said within 4 weeks I should be getting another letter. I was simply trying to defend myself against what they are saying. I don't even know the exact reason for termination, as they said they didn't have to provide me with a pink slip.