Possible Lawsuit?? - NY

[Vycor]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

I'm wondering what some of you may think here, whether I have a case or not.

I was happily employed at a company for 6 1/2 years. I sent my resume to (what I thought) a larger corporation and they invited me in to talk. I ended up turning them down on the job they had, did not seem like the right job for me. So I stayed where I was. A month later the company calls me again and I go back out for an interview, this time to discuss a different MANAGEMENT job. Well I turned that down, again, did not seem like the job for me.
So then another month goes down and they call me. They talk to me about this management job I turned down and told me they'd make it more flexible so I'd get to do what I like and i'd get to do a lot. Well sounded good.

So based on that and how I saw their big warehouse and big facility and they said they had great benefits, etc.. I took the job. I gave my two weeks, left my old job (with a reference from them even) and started at the new job.

Well I start at the new job and I find out they are moving half their offices and merging things and they will be leasing out 1/2 their office space. Then I hear from employees that the company has a revolving door in my position and that they have payroll issues. Then the owner of the company himself even tells me there are payroll issues and sometimes there may not be a paycheck, even tells me he'll make sure i get my first weeks check even if he doesnt pay someone else.

Then Im fired two weeks later for some bogus reason... "I was not aggressive enough in starting a project" and "I was not aggressive enough in getting insurance paperwork for a job"

I had scheduled a job, been on the job site every day working with the guys, so not sure why he thought i was not aggressive enough starting the job. We were ahead of schedule. And we had a 2 hour delay getting insurance paperwork to the contractors because the owner had changed the actual date from 2 weeks out, to the next day, so naturally i did not have insurance papers yet to the contractor, i was scheduled for 2 weeks out.

Anyway im fililng for UI now and they are fighting me on it. I sent UI my story so hopefully they side with me.

But I asked my old boss if I could come back, he said he didnt think I could, as it would set a bad example with other staff where I left for a better job and then i was able to come right back when it didnt work. He doesnt want other employees to see that and think they can just leave and come back if things dont work out.

So now here i am, out of a job that i was good at and made good money and being fought on unemployment.

Does any of this sound like a case where I can sue the company that just fired me? Maybe for reasons of they were lied to me about a position or pursuaded me to leave one good job and then gave me the boot once i was gone.

They were a competitor to where i used to work, so maybe they did this just to screw with the old company and throw a wrench in their engine?

What do you guys think?

 

[You Are Guilty]

I think your best bet is to focus your energy on your unemployment claim. If UI initially finds in favor of your ex employer, be sure to timely file an appeal. Initial results are not a good indication of final outcomes when it comes to unemployment

 

[Vycor]

Thanks already doing that... but back to the subject at hand... anybody think I have a possible case due to this company hiring me away and then when I get there its nothing as they claimed it was and then they get rid of me 2 weeks later... basically they screwed with me

 

[Zigner]

Thanks already doing that... but back to the subject at hand... anybody think I have a possible case due to this company hiring me away and then when I get there its nothing as they claimed it was and then they get rid of me 2 weeks later... basically they screwed with me

You're not big on reading between the lines, huh?

Absent a breach of an actual employment contract, you do not have a case against the folks that just fired you.

 

[ecmst12]

Nope, not at all.

 

[commentator]

The situation you are describing is incredibly common. When I worked for the unemployment office, I heard this situation played out about five or six times a week. And there is no labor law that has been violated, absent a binding contract that you got with this new employer before they hired you, and they're about as common as polar bears. It's a safe bet you didn't have one. Therefore, you are out of a job, and out of lawsuit luck.

Do keep certifying for weeks on your unemployment insurance while the appeal process is working out. Be sure that you stress that you accepted the new job in good faith, that you showed up each day and did your best, and that you were told they were downsizing, were having a hard time meeting their payroll, etc. This means you probably have a real good chance of approval. It is pretty obvious they were in trouble and couldn't keep the slot filled, and they are pretty much in laying off or going down status. You'd have to have been proved to have done something so terrible that it was gross misconduct, given your short term stay at the employer, for them to keep you from being approved on your claim.

Try to keep the doors open with your old employer. They may change their minds and want you back later. And do be diligently looking for something else. Even if you are approved for unemployment benefits, your former employer's account will probably not be affected, so they have no real impetus to hire you back if they don't want to, but good trained employees are hard to find.

 

[Vycor]

Yeah Im looking every day. Awaiting a few call backs.

So any idea who will take the hit on paying out the UI? Will it be my employer of 6 1/2 years or the one who I worked for, for the past 2 weeks who fired me?

 

[commentator]

Any idea who's going to be on the hook for my benefits (if I am approved)?

Answer: Neither of these two employers, really. The unemployment system is set up so that taxes are collected from most covered employers whether they ever lay anyone off or have anyone receive unemployment benefits from them or not. These particular taxes, which are collected from all covered employers in the state, can never be used for any other purpose than to pay unemployment benefits.

Most people are allotted a complete claim, and then they return to work without drawing out all the benefits in the claim. Companies pay in the taxes for years and never have them returned. The unemployment system is based on the state setting up a "pool" of money always held in reserve by the state as required by law to pay unemployment claims. When the pool runs low, they have to borrow money from the federal government to get it up to a certain level. In prosperous times, it gets nice and full.

In some states, the unemployment system looks at the reason you left all the employers in the base period and issues charges to their account, or non charges to their account based on whether your claim would have been approved at that time. In some states, they just charge every one of the base period employers. It really does simplify paperwork, but of course it is very unpopular with employers!

But either way, NY is a "non-charging" state, which means that even though wages from your past two years employment will be used to calculate your claim, and all of those will come from that previous employer, the employer's account will be given a non charge because you voluntarily quit the job.

The money you will draw if you are declared eligible for benefits will be taken from the general state pool, not the long term employer's tax account. Because you voluntarily quit your position with them, and would not have been approved for benefits if you had filed at that point, even if you are approved for benefits and draw a whole claim, it will not hurt their experience rating or raise their tax amount. That's why I said they had no real incentive to take you back as far as unemployment insurance goes.

As for your most recent employer, the wages used to set up your unemployment claim are (usually) based on the first four of the last five completed quarters from the date you file. Probably none of the wages from this last employer are even used in this claim at all.

In the future, in the next two or three years, if you are unemployed again and file a claim after a year has passed and this current claim has expired, there will be a tiny tap on their company. You didn't make very much in wages from them at all. But they'd definitely be charged for the tiny percentage you did make, if you had an approved claim back when you left them. (now)

They'll probably, at the rate they're going, be out of business soon. The money they did actually pay into the unemployment system will be in the general pool, of course, they won't ever get it back. And there will still be money there for the people who are laid off from them, even if they go belly up.

 

[Vycor]

I gotcha. Thanks for the very detailed explanation I never knew how it worked.

So basically employers FIGHT IT because they don't want that bad marking on their record?

So they don't actually send money out every month to the state to cover an employees UI... its taken from a pool that's been collected over the course of all employees (thats why I see the UI on every paycheck being taken out).

So although I only worked for 2 weeks, i was still earning. They may not use my entire, or at all, income earned the last 2 weeks because it was not a full quarter, so they'll look at what i used to earn.

In either case, i made enough that i'll get the max amount from the state, thats never been an issue with my employment histories.

I just hope they use my absolute last employer as the reason i need to get unemployment... afterall i was fired for a BS reason, i didn't voluntarily leave or break any company policies. I may have only worked there for 2 weeks, but i did my job the best I could, it was their fault in the end.

 

[commentator]

Unemployment taxes are never taken out of your paycheck in your state. None of it comes from any employee's paycheck. It all comes directly from the employer, paid based on their quarterly payroll records that they submit to the state system. You did not pay it in. Ever.

None of your wages will come from anything you made in the quarter we are in, which will end after the first week in October. But you obviously had enough to set up a claim sometime in September, because they seem to be ajudicating it.

That "bad mark on their record" causes the employer's tax rate to rise, sometimes very significantly. That's why they fight it.

They will use your last employer to determine if you are eligible. This is because you took the job in good faith, expecting it to be a long term job, and you were fired from it, albeit for a BS reason. That's for the unemployment system to decide. Good luck.

 

[Vycor]

Thanks... now I know why they are fighting it... if they have to possibly pay a higher tax rate.

With the revolving door issue here and the fact that there are already two lawsuits going on from former sales people (company did not pay them commissions)... they've also withheld paying some employees aflac fees, yet took the money out of the employees paychecks each week for aflec (employee has to take it out, employe cant send directly)... just a few of the horror stories i heard.