Terminated, I think.

[Black_Met]

California

I work for a large international corporation (Baxter Healthcare). My entire department was fired today for using company computers to access private email accounts. The division office is now shut down and has been permanently closed. However, for years, the department manager told us it was ok to do. HE always used gmail and so did we. Can company headquarters terminate us even though we were never told about this policy and in fact, given permission to do otherwise? It seems like it was just an excuse to shut down an office without the hassle of laying people off.

...and how would this affect unemployment insurance? Does this mean that we probably can't collect?

- Confused

 

[commentator]

Last day of work was today (Friday) File your unemployment claim on Sunday, or anytime thereafter. What this group has done is attempt to avoid unemployment insurance by shutting down its work group, supposedly for misconduct. Nice try, but will not work at all for unemployment purposes. Each member of the group will file for unemployment insurance on their own, and their monetary eligiblity will depend on their previous couple of years work history.

But as for the reason for leaving the last job, when the employer is contacted, how are they going to prove a progressive history of misconduct , with warnings and progressive discipline on all of you? Were any of you given the opportunity to change your behavior and keep your job? This's sort of a silly move. You are all out of work through no fault of your own. Even if the company files for bankruptcy, there will be unemployment insurance available for everyone who qualifies.

 

[cbg]

Will this affect unemployment? Not very likely, for all the reasons commentator outlines.

Was the closure legal? 100% so. Did the law require them to give you notice? Not unless WARN applied. Do you have any legal recourse outside of applying for unemployment? Not based on what you have posted.

 

[Black_Met]

Unemployment Insurance

Thanks for the reply. We just want to get through the holidays. The unemployment will be a huge help. I hope it goes through. Thanks for your time.