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Oregon, Good Reason Quit Clause (Disregard 1 if mulitple post)

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M

moregon

Guest
I posted once, but it didn't show up.. I had been knocked offline, will post again, if this is duplicate please ignore.

I Hope this isn't too long..

OREGON ADMINISTRATIVE RULES

471-030-0038
(4) Good cause for voluntarily leaving work under ORS 657.176(2)(c) is such that a reasonable and prudent person of normal sensitivity, exercising ordinary common sense, would leave work. For an individual with a permanent or long-term "physical or mental impairment" (as defined at 29 CFR §1630.2(h)) good cause for voluntarily leaving work is such that a reasonable and prudent person with the characteristics and qualities of such individual, would leave work. For all individuals, the reason must be of such gravity that the individual has no reasonable alternative but to leave work.

(5) In applying section (4) of this rule:

(d) Reduction in rate of pay: If an individual leaves work due to a reduction in the rate or pay, the individual has left work without good cause unless the newly reduced rate of pay is ten percent or more below the rate of pay generally prevailing for similar work in the individual's normal labor market area.

The reduction in pay is only part of the reason I quit, here is what reduction in pay includes. I was being demoted from Assistant Manager, to a Regular Staff Position, My hourly rate reduced from $9.68 an hour, to $8.50 which is 12% in addition my hours were being cut from 40 hours a week to 32 so I would have realized in actuality at 30% cut in wages.

The entire sequence, beginning in September of 2000, until January of 2001 of events, that led up to my demotion and pay cut, smell of a setup. Here are some quick facts. I began working for this employer in September of 1998, from that date until September 10th, 2000 I had received no disciplinary action write-ups attributable to myself as an individual, however I recieved Memo's that some errors occurred during a shift I worked on. The extent of these errors were 1 box not being initialed on 1 document. The shifts I worked required approximately 200 boxes to be initialed. On September 6th, 2000 I was hospitalized with Anxiety/Panic attacks due to, in my opinion, working conditions. On September 10, 2000 I received a write-up for mistakes made in some documentation, further examination of this write-up shows the dates and times in the write-up do not correlate with days and time I was working. On September 15, I received a write-up for decreased job performance, On September 19th, I received my annual evaluation, which states my job performance was very good and I received a raise in income. On December 6th I received a write-up due to a missed training the day before. Three days previous to this, before going home on my week-end, I checked my schedule, and my hours were the same as always, from 1-9 on 12/5. There were no training schedules on board for me. The manager always changes normal hours worked to coincide with training times, has before and after this time, but did NOT this day. Everyone else on the schedule who had upcoming trainings, hours had been altered, mine were not. The supervisor I had problems with, had been in the area of that training schedule, which had been hanging there for 3 weeks, for 4 hours that day doing an inspection. I did check, and since I was tired, the fact it had been there previously slipped my mind. On 12/6 I also received another write-up from an incident that occurred in 10/00 where some more boxes where not initialed. On 12/20 I received a write-up for not having shoe laces in my shoes, and for wearing pants with a stain on them. I had not been wearing shoe laces for at least 5 months previous to this, nothing had ever been said, as well as there is nothing in the dress code that says we have to have laces. The stain they refer to was on left leg about the size of an old silver dollar, I was wearing old pants due to some work I was going to do that would possibly end up ruining whatever I was wearing. I had ruined clothes 6 months before, and even after telling my director supervisor about it, I was never re-imbursed for the clothing, so I did not want to risk ruining more clothes I would have to replace out of my own pocket.

On or about January 3rd, my direct supervisor was going on vacation, as she was walking out the door, I was told that some paperwork, which had been taken out of my list of responsibilites in October, were now my resposibility again. These books had not been touched in almost 2 months. I was then faced with the responsibility of doing these 2 months of back records, my current records plus the added responsibility the current information of the job now my responsibility again, plus the paperwork responsibilities of the supervisor who was leaving on vacation. In addition to this, I received a call the next day that one of our other staff members were being hospitalized, and the supervisor had ordered me to fill in their hours as well, since we were short-handed. For the next 2 weeks I worked without a day off, from 13 to 16 hours a day, salaried position. With all of these responsibilities I did not get to the deliquent paperwork which had become my responsibility. During this time, I had to make out the payroll, and even though I was salaried, I had to put down the amount of hours I worked, which I did. The next week when the payroll sheet came back, it was not the one I sent in, but had been re-done by the supervisor I was having a problem with, now showing I had not worked any overtime. When my direct supervisor returned from her vacation, she directed me to go home. I told her that the next week we were having a inspection on the books and they had to be done. I said I would stay and get the past paperwork caught up, then go home, she said no, that she would help me on Tuesday to get them done, the inspection was on Wednesday. On Tuesday when I returned to work, the people from the home office were leaving, they had come a day early to do the inspection, and it was on the basis of this my demotion, cut in hours and pay were determined.

With all that in mind, plus if the law regading 10% reduction in pay was based on my normal 40+ hour per week, or is only based on per hour you work? If only based on the pay per hour, I would have been making about normal for that position. However, if the 10% maximum is based on what has been my normal 40 hours per week for 2 1/2 years, the now reduced hours would be a reduction of 20% of what I could have expected at that rate for 40 hours. Even compared to the average wages of the same job, in other industries in the area, comparing their rate at 40 hours, to my new rate at 32 hours, I would have been 15% below that rate.

I guess the bottom line is, does this sound like the correct way to fight this? Or should I go about it from a different angle? In your opinion would a reasonable and prudent person of normal sensitivity, exercising ordinary common sense, leave work?

Thanks for any input.
 



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