Unemployent in Minnesota

[lonjaxson]

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

I was employed in Minnesota and I was fired due to "misconduct". I have an appeal hearing tomorrow for unemployment benefits. After some research, I discovered that sexual harassment is a valid reason to quit your job. After quitting for that reason, you can receive unemployment.

Source: Employment Law in Minnesota - Lawyers.com

I did not mention that I was sexually harassed on my unemployment application. Would this be a good thing to bring up to the judge?

 

[Proserpina]

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

I was employed in Minnesota and I was fired due to "misconduct". I have an appeal hearing tomorrow for unemployment benefits. After some research, I discovered that sexual harassment is a valid reason to quit your job. After quitting for that reason, you can receive unemployment.

Source: Employment Law in Minnesota - Lawyers.com

I did not mention that I was sexually harassed on my unemployment application. Would this be a good thing to bring up to the judge?

a) You didn't quit - you were fired
b) Were you actually harassed? Was it reported? Do you have proof?

 

[JETX]

Would this be a good thing to bring up to the judge?

Only if you can PROVE it happened.... and isn't just something you are making up to enhance your claim.

So, what was the 'misconduct' that caused your termination??

 

[commentator]

Okay, when you filed for benefits, what did you tell the claims office was the reason you are no longer working at your job? If it is because you were fired for misconduct, then you were asked a bunch of other questions, about "did you know that what you did was against the rules?" and "Had you had any prior warnings about this behavior?"

If you go in and announce that you were fired because...no, wait a minute, you were fired, but you were going to quit, because you want to mention that you were being sexually harrassed on the job......the appeals referee will not even allow you to bring that in for consideration, probably. They will tell you that they want to talk ONLY about the reason for your termination, and the misconduct incident which precipitated your termination.

Even if you produced evidence that these people were selling drugs out of the reception room of their building, or forcing people to submit to body cavity searches, that would not be relevant to the reason you were terminated.

If I were you I would stay on target. You are pretty much limited to elaborating on what you said in the initial filing for benefits. If you had quit your job due to sexual harrassment, or had been fired because you refused your supervisor or co-worker's sexual advances, then it might be relevant to your case. Please produce the best proof you have available that this is what happened, such as evidence that you have filed a complaint with the EEOC.

As far as misconduct goes, you must prove you had not been warned and did not have any opportunity to save your job by changing your behavior, or that the behavior was not major misconduct, something so bad that you only needed to do it once to get fired

 

[lonjaxson]

Here's a little background of what happened, any advice would be much appreciated.

I was a lot attendant at a car dealership. My duties at the end of the night were to remove keys from the 200+ vehicles at the dealership (they would be left in them all day). On occasion, a key would be left in a vehicle overnight. Whether or not is was MY fault or not, nobody knows. It would always get pinned on me. Salesmen would often take keys from the ring they were kept on and not tell me. The cleaning crew would park cars AFTER I "unkeyed" and leave keys in them. The thing is, they have no proof I left them.. and I have no proof I didn't. This had happened MANY times (to all lot attendants) throughout my 13 month employment. They only started writing me up AFTER I asked for my first raise (which they did not give me before I was teriminated). I obviously can't prove that that was a factor for my termination, but the facts support it.

The Determination of Ineligibility states:
"The applicant's unsatisfactory work performance was intentional or negligent, and it showed a substantial lack of concern for the employment or it was a serious violation of the standards of behavior that the employer had the right to expect. The applicant's actions were employment misconduct."

This statement is UNTRUE. It was neither intentional or negligent. I would stay as late as half an hour after my shift to make sure everything was locked up. My managers would send me to get them fast food during the time I was supposed to be closing up, this would cause me to become flustered when I was doing my job.

 

[Proserpina]

Where does sexual harassment come into it?

 

[lonjaxson]

Where does sexual harassment come into it?

I have no proof I was sexually harassed, but here are some examples.

On any given day, salesmen and managers alike would show me pornographic images on their cell phones. I did not want to see these images, but they showed me them anyway.

On any given day, salesmen and managers would ask me about my sex life. "Did you take a shower with your girlfriend this weekend?". I constantly felt uncomfortable. The only way I could prove this would be through text message records to my girlfriend, who I told everything. Also, I know of one person that MIGHT serve as a witness to that.

 

[Proserpina]

I have no proof I was sexually harassed, but here are some examples.

On any given day, salesmen and managers alike would show me pornographic images on their cell phones. I did not want to see these images, but they showed me them anyway.

On any given day, salesmen and managers would ask me about my sex life. "Did you take a shower with your girlfriend this weekend?". I constantly felt uncomfortable. The only way I could prove this would be through text message records to my girlfriend, who I told everything. Also, I know of one person that MIGHT serve as a witness to that.

Why didn't you complain when it was happening?

(I'm not being argumentative - this WILL be asked of you if you try and raise the issue. And as commentator said, it's unlikely it will be heard at all)

 

[Antigone*]

I have no proof I was sexually harassed, but here are some examples.

On any given day, salesmen and managers alike would show me pornographic images on their cell phones. I did not want to see these images, but they showed me them anyway.

On any given day, salesmen and managers would ask me about my sex life. "Did you take a shower with your girlfriend this weekend?". I constantly felt uncomfortable. The only way I could prove this would be through text message records to my girlfriend, who I told everything. Also, I know of one person that MIGHT serve as a witness to that.

The bottom line

 

[lonjaxson]

Why didn't you complain when it was happening?

(I'm not being argumentative - this WILL be asked of you if you try and raise the issue. And as commentator said, it's unlikely it will be heard at all)

I honestly don't know. In fear of being fired.. not knowing where to turn. I'm 19 years old, I don't know much about this kind of thing.

 

[lonjaxson]

The bottom line

That doesn't really help. The text messages from months ago would be proof, right?

 

[Proserpina]

That doesn't really help. The text messages from months ago would be proof, right?

No.

They may be proof that Person A said something to Person B about Situation Z.

It does NOT prove that Situation Z actually happened.

 

[Proserpina]

I honestly don't know. In fear of being fired.. not knowing where to turn. I'm 19 years old, I don't know much about this kind of thing.

Without proof of sexual harassment, you have nothing. It's far too late now to claim it happened if you cannot show that it did actually happen - and that's not even touching on the fact that you never mentioned it during your unemployment benefit claim.

 

[cbg]

The problem is that since you didn't bring it up at the time, it has no bearing on your unemployment, regardless of what "proof" you may have. You didn't quit because of sexual harassment, so it really doesn 't matter that if you had, you might have been eligible. It's a non-starter, now, and you will not be allowed to raise the issue. You're stuck with the facts that you have, which are that you were fired and the employer is claiming misconduct.

The burden of proof will be on the employer to show that the alleged misconduct was sufficient to deny you benefits, but since the sexual harassment was not an aspect of your termination, it's not an aspect of your unemployment.

Now, if at least one instance of harassment was within the last 180 days AND your employer has 15 or more employees, you can make a complaint to the EEOC and/or the equivalent state agency. It would have been better if you had raised the issue previously because now it will look like sour grapes because you got fired, but you CAN do it. But there's no point in trying to raise it with regards to your UI claim. It simply won't fly.

 

[lonjaxson]

The problem is that since you didn't bring it up at the time, it has no bearing on your unemployment, regardless of what "proof" you may have. You didn't quit because of sexual harassment, so it really doesn 't matter that if you had, you might have been eligible. It's a non-starter, now, and you will not be allowed to raise the issue. You're stuck with the facts that you have, which are that you were fired and the employer is claiming misconduct.

The burden of proof will be on the employer to show that the alleged misconduct was sufficient to deny you benefits, but since the sexual harassment was not an aspect of your termination, it's not an aspect of your unemployment.

Now, if at least one instance of harassment was within the last 180 days AND your employer has 15 or more employees, you can make a complaint to the EEOC and/or the equivalent state agency. It would have been better if you had raised the issue previously because now it will look like sour grapes because you got fired, but you CAN do it. But there's no point in trying to raise it with regards to your UI claim. It simply won't fly.

Okay, that makes sense. Thank you.

What kind of proof will they need? I don't know that I left those keys in the cars, there are so many to keep track of. They have no way of proving it, to my knowledge. It could have been a salesman or somebody working in the cleaning department. They just pushed it on me. I feel like I was targeted because I was asking for a raise. I hadn't got one for my entire time working there. Is there some sort of law regarding pay raises? I know this is far-fetched, I just feel like they thought "Oh, he's asking for a raise... he can be replaced".