unemployement and firing

[TJ59]

What is the name of your state?washington

I understand washington is an "at will" state, but how does that affect the "fired" person's ability to recieve unemployement benefits?..Seems the employer can just about claim any reason. Secondly, why are some "firings" acceptable for unemployement, and others not. Usually one gets fired for some violation or another, while being "laid off" was the term used for those who were let go for other reasons. Reason i ask, is my 20 year old daughter was fired from her job for an unacceptable amout of "tardies", according to her employer. While we/she cannot actually agree to or deny this, as she never kept records, her overall performance was good, and she had been reminded of this by her supervisors repeatedly. our unemployement office denied her benefits, stating she "willfully disregarded the policies".."willfully" tried to cause harm to business practices of the company...Seems there was a lot of Willful bad behavior. . We feel that firing is usually the result of some bad behavior, but what constitutes "willful"...If a person hated their job so much, that they would intentionally do things to get fired, they would just quit. Would it be discrimination, if this policy for tardiness were only applied to some and not others?..Thanxs

 

[Beth3]

I understand washington is an "at will" state, but how does that affect the "fired" person's ability to recieve unemployement benefits?.. It doesn't. "At will" is not recognized in UC statutes.

Secondly, why are some "firings" acceptable for unemployement, and others not. It depends entirely on whether the reason the employee was fired meets the standard of willful/gross misconduct as defined in your State's UC reg's. Employers can have very valid reasons for firing someone that does not meet that standard. That does not make the termination unlawful however.

We feel that firing is usually the result of some bad behavior, but what constitutes "willful"... In brief, it's when the employee shows a substantial disregard for the employer's best interests. If an employee was fired for being repeatedly tardy and the causes were beyond the employee's control (severe snow and ice storms, for example), then that would not be willful misconduct. If your daughter just couldn't get herself out of bed early enough, then that was entirely within her control and likely would constitute willful misconduct.

If a person hated their job so much, that they would intentionally do things to get fired, they would just quit. Not necessarily. Most everybody knows if they quit their job they won't be eligible for UC benefits. Some individuals have been known to try to get themselves fired in the hopes they'll be eligible for unemployment benefits.

Would it be discrimination, if this policy for tardiness were only applied to some and not others?..Thanxs Only if the reason for the difference is because of the employee's race, gender, national origin, religion, and so on. There are reasons why an employer may legitimately decide to hold employees to different standards. For example, if they have a more senior employee who has a handicap or illness who has a legitimate reason for occasional tardiness and the employer knows he or she is making every effort to get to work on time.

Sounds like this needs to be a learning experience for your daughter. She needs to get herself to work on time consistently or else she can anticipate being fired again and again and will eventually find herself unemployable.