employer fraud

What is the name of your state? Tennessee I was fired for excessive absenteeism. When i started this job, it was with a verbal agreement with plant manager that when things were slow, I would call in. This was to avoid being laid off for lack of work. During my one year employment, I missed approx. 60 days. When fired, I applied for unemployment. It was denied due to "work related misconduct". All subsequent appeals were also denied, based on the companies version of events. During my employment, two other employee's with perfect attendance were laid off while I was not. The plant manager said I recieved "verbal warnings" about missing work, but this is not true. Company written policy calls for four progressive levels of disciplinary action incuding suspension for the FIRST FOUR OFFENCES!, much less 60! I did not get so much as a single written warning as called for in written company policy. When I tried to bring this up in appeal, the appeals board simply ignored it. The Tn. Chancery court appeal was only on evidence already in record. Since the board did not take this evidence, I could not present it it chancery court. I need help. I wish to pursue this matter since it is now VERY personal to me. I cannot afford a lawyer since I have now been without income since Dec. 2001. Do I have any avenues to pursue this matter? I want to make them pay for these lies.E-mail me at lowelldray@ yahoo.com

It sounds like you've gone to the UC hearing and lost and then had the next level board review the decision - and you're right, at that point, they do not accept any further evidence. They will only review the testimony and evidence presented at the hearing. If you failed to enter a copy of the disciplinary policy into evidence at the hearing and/or the ALJ simply chose to believe the employer and not you, you're stuck.

Assuming your State's UC reg's on this matter are similar to mine (which they appear to be) your only remaining recourse is to have the decision reviewed yet again by the State's District Attorney and if that fails, then to file suit against the State and go to trial. Frankly, I've never heard of anybody doing that. The cost of it (retaining an attorney, court costs, etc.) and the amount of time it's going to take to resolve this (probably years from now) is going to far exceed the UC benefits you would receive. It could cost you $20,000 to get $10,00 in benefits and that assumes you win. Otherwise you're just out another 20K (I'm guessing at the cost here.)

You may of course wish to consult with an attorney - many will give a one-time consultation for free - but you may have to decide to just let this go. The cost of persuing this because it's become very "personal" to you is very likely going to be very expensive. You should also contact your local UC division and have them provide information to you on what the "next steps" are to appeal the decision further, just to be certain what the process is.

According to the state, I have no more appeal except thru civil action against the employer. This seems wrong since the appeal board completely failed to even look at my evidence. {check stubs, ect.} I filed all this action pro-se, and apparently didn't do this right. Now I'll have to pay all the court costs even though the court did absolutely nothing to help me. I thought the justice system only tried to screw me in criminal cases!. Guess I was wrong. I can't afford a lawyer {which would have avoided this mess in the first place}, so I guess I'm s.o.l. Any Lawyers out there who want to represent me in a civil suit against my employer? I'll take one dollar, the rest is yours.P.S. Lawyers in my area don't scratch their butts for free.